Nancy
How can you know for sure if your career or your relationship is worth saving, or if you should walk away?
Welcome to the Nancy Levin Show. I’m Nancy Levin, founder of Levin Life Coach Academy, bestselling author, master coach, and your host. I help overachieving people pleasers set boundaries that stick and own self-worth, anchored in empowered action so you can feel free.
Plus, if you’re an aspiring or current coach, you are in the right place. Join me each week for coaching and compelling conversations designed to support you in the spotlight as you take center stage of your own life. Let’s dive in.
Nancy
Welcome back to another episode of the Nancy Levin Show. I am so glad you’re here today because we are diving into one of the most tender and transformative conversations that we can have with ourselves.
It’s one that echoes in the quiet moments when you are lying in bed at night with your heart racing or when you’re diving into work and wondering if this is really it.
Or when you’re looking across the dinner table and thinking, is this still working or am I just afraid to leave?
And let me be perfectly clear right here at the start, this is not about giving you a checklist or a definitive answer because the truth is that no one outside of you can make this choice.
But what we can do is shine a light into the shadowy spaces of indecision and explore what happens when we stop avoiding the truth and start listening to what we already know deep down.
So how many times have you asked yourself the question, should I stay or should I go?
And I’ll just pop in to say right here that, that’s not even the real question.
The real question is how can I activate my wholeness, my fullness, regardless of if I stay or go, but instead we perseverate around this question, should I stay or should I go?
And it’s a question that will haunt us because we find ourselves in a situation, a job, a relationship that at one time felt aligned, even exciting, but now something feels off.
And it may not necessarily be terrible. It may not necessarily be toxic, but it is out of alignment. It feels dull or disconnected, and so instead of making a move, we feel frozen.
We are mentally looping.
We are emotionally drained.
We are trying to think our way out of something that needs to be felt.
And believe me, I get it. I have been there. You might be afraid of making the wrong move, so you stay stuck, trapped between two doors and never opening either.
But here is what I want you to know. Staying in indecision is a decision.
And it is a decision that comes with a cost because every day you stay stuck, you are giving away your energy, your clarity, your peace of mind.
You are postponing freedom, and what’s worse, you are postponing your life.
So you may not realize this, but the longer you stay in limbo, the more disconnected you become. You’re disconnected from yourself, from your partner, from your purpose.
It is easy to convince ourselves that indecision is a kind of safety. After all, if we don’t decide, we can’t mess it up, right?
But indecision is actually a trap and it creates more anxiety, not less, because even though you are not moving forward, the pressure doesn’t go away, it builds.
So if this is resonating with you, take a breath here with me.
And simply ask yourself, what is indecision really costing me?
What is my indecision really costing me?
Because here’s the truth, clarity and freedom come when you take even small steps, micro steps, toward a decision.
So whether that means reinvesting in your relationship or your career, or walking away with love and integrity, action will always bring more peace than spinning in circles.
Action alleviates anxiety and overwhelm. So now let’s talk about one of the biggest fears we carry.
Am I giving up too soon?
What if I regret leaving?
Or the flip side?
What if I stay too long and waste even more of my life?
Any of this sound familiar? We’re so afraid of choosing wrong that we cling to the familiar even when it’s draining us.
But what if that is the wrong question?
Instead of asking, am I giving up too soon?
What if you asked, can this relationship or this career grow with me as I evolve?
Because here’s the thing, you are not the same person you were five years ago or 10 years ago. So it makes sense that your needs, your desires, your values have shifted.
And sometimes we stay because we’re afraid of the unknown, but other times we stay because we believe we are the problem. We think “if I could just try harder, be better, do more, then maybe it could all work.”
But I wanna offer you something gentle and true here.
Staying in a situation out of perfectionism or people-pleasing isn’t noble.
It is exhausting.
So what if you didn’t have to blow up your life to be happy.
What if the first step is simply realigning with yourself? Because once you do that, you can start to see more clearly whether the life you are living still fits the person you’re becoming.
And that clarity does not come from overthinking.
It comes from reconnecting. Reconnecting with your truth, your desires, and your needs.
So for a moment here, I wanna speak to the part of you that is scared because fear is real.
And fear whispers:
What if I leave and I’m still unhappy?
What if I quit and nothing works out?
What if I regret forever?
But I’m going to offer you this.
The fear you feel is not a sign that something’s wrong.
It is a sign that something new is being born, and every time we stretch beyond the edge of who we’ve been, fear comes along for the ride.
And that is okay because we’re not waiting to be fearless. We’re building courage.
One step at a time. Fear wants to keep you in your comfort zone, even if that comfort zone is miserable because it’s predictable, it is familiar.
And predictability feels like safety. But what you may not realize is that staying small and stuck comes with its own risks.
You risk living a life that is a fraction of what is possible for you. You risk never fully knowing what you’re capable of.
And on the other side of that fear is freedom. Freedom to feel alive, freedom to stop performing and start being.
Freedom to choose a life that is truly aligned.
The truth of who you are.
So let’s come back for a moment to the hidden consequences of indecision, because a lot of us think that by not making a move, we are keeping the peace.
But here’s what’s really happening. You are carrying a quiet storm inside. All of that mental back and forth.
It creates emotional chaos.
It bleeds into everything. Your relationships, your health, your work. And when we live in the, should I stay or should I go space for too long, we become emotionally drained.
We begin to resent the very people or places we once loved. And worst of all. We lose connection with ourselves, and that connection is what we need to reclaim.
So wherever you are today, whether you are contemplating a change in your career, your marriage, or any other area of your life, I am going to leave you here with this.
The unknown will always feel scary, but staying stuck is far worse.
You do not have to have it all figured out.
You do not have to make a massive leap today.
You do need to listen, and you need to listen to you because the real key to knowing whether something is worth saving, is turning inward.
First, what do you want?
What do you need?
What do you think?
What do you feel, and what would it feel like if you knew that you could trust yourself?
Because here’s the magic part: every small micro action you take builds courage.
With courage comes clarity. So whether you decide to reinvest or lovingly walk away, you will do it from a place of self-trust.
You’ll do it from a place of wholeness, from alignment, because on the other side of fear is the life that’s waiting for you.
I’m so glad you decided to be here with me today, and if this episode stirred something inside of you, if you’re feeling called to make a change, most importantly, I want you to know you do not have to do it alone. I’ve got tools and resources and support for you @nancylevin.com, and I am cheering you on every step of the way.
So until next time, here’s to your clarity and your courage and your freedom.
Bye for now.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I invite you to head on over to nancy levin.com to check out all the goodies I have there for you. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a rating and a review. I’ll meet you back here next week.