Every investor has had this conversation with themselves.

I cannot make a decision.
What if this is the wrong call?
Everything feels uncertain right now.
Nothing feels back to normal.
No one knows what the future holds.
Maybe I should just wait and see.

Waiting feels responsible. It feels cautious. It feels intelligent. It feels like you are avoiding a mistake.

But here is the uncomfortable truth.

Waiting is also a decision.

It is a decision to do nothing while time continues to move. It is a decision to let uncertainty dictate behavior. It is a decision to postpone action until the world offers clarity.

The world never does.

Markets are always uncertain. Headlines are always loud. Predictions are always conflicting. There is no moment where everything feels safe, obvious, and calm at the same time.

That moment exists only in hindsight.

Most investing mistakes are not made because people chose badly. They are made because people waited too long. They waited for certainty. They waited for normal. They waited for confidence to arrive before action.

Confidence does not arrive before action. It arrives after.

The best long-term investors understand this deeply. They do not try to predict when uncertainty will disappear. They accept uncertainty as the default condition and build systems around it.

They diversify because they know they will always be wrong somewhere.
They invest regularly because timing is unknowable.
They focus on goals rather than market moods.
They decide in advance how they will act when fear shows up.

Waiting feels safe, but it quietly compounds regret.

Time in the market rewards participation, not perfection. Progress comes from acting thoughtfully, not from waiting endlessly.

The real question is not whether now is the perfect time.
The real question is whether your plan still makes sense.

If your goals are intact and your strategy is sound, then hesitation is not prudence. It is fear wearing a sensible mask.

Markets do not punish uncertainty. They punish paralysis.

At some point, the waiter in the cartoon says, you need a few more minutes.

Investors often say the same thing to themselves.

A few more minutes often turn into a few more years.

And that cost is far higher than any imperfect decision ever will be.