Send us Fan Mail
Have you ever known exactly what you wanted, yet still found yourself waiting for someone else to tell you it was okay?
You want to change careers, but you need your family to understand first. You want to charge more for your work, but you’re waiting for someone to confirm that you’re worth it. You want to walk away from something that no longer feels right, but you keep wondering whether other people will think your reasons are valid enough.
Even simple choices—taking a break, saying no, changing your mind, starting again—can feel uncomfortable when a part of you is still looking for approval.
And here’s what’s interesting: nobody may actually be withholding permission from you.
You may simply have spent so many years seeking approval that you never learned how to give yourself permission.
Hello beautiful soul,
Welcome back to another honest and deeply reflective episode of the Flight to Fulfillment Podcast, where we explore emotional awareness, self-worth, and the hidden patterns that quietly influence the choices we make.
I’m your host, Ratika Seth, Life Enhancement Coach and founder of the Freedom Divas Hub, a community where women reconnect with themselves, rebuild self-trust, and create lives rooted in freedom, self-respect, and conscious choice.
Today, we’re talking about the psychology of waiting for permission—a pattern that can become so normal that we don’t even recognise we’re doing it.
From a young age, many of us learn that approval feels good. We’re praised for making the “right” choices, following expectations, being responsible, and not disappointing the people around us.
Over time, however, approval can become more than something we appreciate. It can become something we need before we trust our own decisions.
And that pattern doesn’t automatically disappear when we become adults.
We ask multiple people what they think about a decision we’ve already made in our hearts. We over-explain our choices because saying, “This is what I want,” somehow doesn’t feel like a sufficient reason. We delay decisions because someone important to us hasn’t agreed with them yet.
And sometimes, we aren’t even waiting for a person to give us permission.
We’re waiting for life itself.
When the children are older, I’ll focus on myself.
When things settle down, I’ll make the change.
When I feel more confident, I’ll put myself out there.
When I have enough experience, I’ll charge more.
When everyone understands, I’ll finally choose what I want.
But there’s always another reason to wait.
And that is how life can quietly become one long waiting room.
The years pass, circumstances change, responsibilities come and go, but the life you keep promising yourself remains somewhere in the future.
Perhaps the deeper issue isn’t that you don’t know what you want.
Perhaps you don’t yet feel entitled to choose it without somebody else agreeing with you.
And that is a very different problem.
Because self-trust isn’t believing that every decision you make will be right. It’s knowing that you are capable of making a decision, living with its consequences, learning from it, and choosing again if necessary.
At some point, emotional adulthood asks us to stop looking around the room for someone to nod and say, “Yes, you’re allowed.”
So today, we’re exploring 5 signs you may still be waiting for permission to choose yourself, why approval can become so deeply connected to our decisions, and how to start becoming the authority in a life that was always yours to live.
More Power To All!
Follow me on
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
LinkedIn
For any information, write to me on [email protected]
To know more, visit my website www.ratikaseth.com
Much Gratitude!
Ratika Seth
