The Cost of Maybe, A Thursday Offering

A weekly practice in choosing clarity over comfortable avoidance

I once believed time would do the work for me. That if I waited long enough, the truth would soften. That maybe would turn, quietly and painlessly, into clarity.

It doesn’t work that way.

Time doesn’t alchemize avoidance into wisdom. It just makes the knowing heavier to hold.

Tuesday’s essay told that story—how postponing honesty doesn’t protect us, it only spreads the pain across years. You can’t make truth painless by delaying it. You can only make it more expensive.

We all have our own versions of maybe. The friendship we’ve outgrown but keep tending. The job that drains us but feels too safe to leave. The conversation we keep promising to have “when things calm down.”

Maybe is the language of emotional deferral. It feels like gentleness, but it’s often a form of self-betrayal.

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For Everyone

The Cost of Maybe

Journal reflection – 15–20 minutes

Think of one area where you’re living in maybe right now. Where you’re uncertain, postponing, deferring a decision you already know needs to be made.

Write about what you’re hoping will change if you just wait a little longer.

Then ask yourself:

• What is this uncertainty costing me in energy, peace, or possibility?

• What might shift if I moved from maybe to clarity?

• What would I need to feel ready to choose?

Then Close with: I deserve clarity and have the wisdom to choose my path.

Start small if this feels big. Pick a low-stakes maybe, something that feels safe to explore first. The goal isn’t to force a decision. It’s just to notice the weight you’re carrying by not deciding.

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Two Deeper Practices for Paid Subscribers

I’ve included a mantra for brave honesty and a creative exercise that helps you see the emotional architecture of truth, before and after it’s spoken.

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