Deciding Not to Stay Put

There’s a quote by J.P. Morgan that’s been running laps in my head lately:

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

On the surface, it sounds so obvious. But then I think about all the times I’ve known I wanted something different yet stayed exactly where I was. Why? Because staying put is easy. It’s safe. It doesn’t require packing up boxes, rewriting résumés, or admitting to myself that I might have wasted time in a less-than-great situation.

The Allure of Staying Comfortable

I once lived in this tiny apartment that I despised. I’m talking paper-thin walls (I could literally tell when my neighbor was watching Wheel of Fortune), a shower that trickled like a leaky faucet, and a heater that seemed to have only two settings: inferno or tundra. But I stayed there for years.

Why? Because moving was intimidating. Calling moving companies, hunting for new apartments, dealing with deposits—it all felt overwhelming. So instead, I told myself, “Eh, this is fine. It’s not that bad.” But here’s the secret truth: when you let yourself settle in one area of life, it starts bleeding into other areas too. The longer I told myself the apartment was fine, the easier it was to tell myself, “this job is fine,” or “this project can wait,” or “this relationship doesn’t really need to change.”

That kind of complacency is sneaky. You don’t even notice it until you look up and realize you’ve been treading water for years.

The Power of a Decision

That’s why J.P. Morgan’s quote hit me like a splash of cold water. Nothing changes until you decide it’s going to change. You don’t need the roadmap yet. You don’t need to know every step in the journey. You just need that moment of clarity where you say:

“I’m not going to stay here anymore.”

And that decision? That’s the hardest part. It’s like breaking up with your old self. The self that was okay with mediocrity, with delay, with endless “maybe laters.” Once you cut ties with that version of yourself, things start to shift in ways you couldn’t imagine before.

Momentum Feeds on Movement

Here’s something wild I’ve noticed: once you make the decision to move forward, doors start opening that you didn’t even know existed.

For example, when I finally decided to move out of that dreaded apartment, the perfect place seemed to “magically” appear in my price range. When I decided to finally self-publish my first novel, I suddenly found myself meeting other indie authors, stumbling into resources, and finding readers who’d been looking for exactly the kind of stories I wanted to write.

Was it magic? Not really. It was momentum. My focus shifted. My energy shifted. Instead of scanning for reasons to stay, I started scanning for opportunities to go. And wouldn’t you know it—opportunities were everywhere.

Asking the Tough Questions

Writing this post made me sit back and think about where I’m guilty of staying put right now. The honest answer? A few places. There are projects I keep circling around without fully committing. There are routines I know aren’t working for me anymore. There are even a couple of relationships in my life that feel more like dead plants than thriving gardens.

And that’s the scary but freeing part about Morgan’s quote: once you admit to yourself that you _don’t want to stay here,_the excuses lose their power.

Start Small, But Start

You don’t have to overhaul your whole life in a day. Change doesn’t need to be dramatic to be effective. Sometimes the most powerful decision is a small one.

Maybe it’s deciding you’re going to write one page of that novel you’ve been putting off. Or deciding that you won’t spend another Sunday night dreading Monday morning—so you update your résumé. Or even something tiny, like unsubscribing from emails you never read (trust me, the mental clarity from a clean inbox is underrated).

Each little decision builds your “I’m not staying here” muscle. And before you know it, you’re stronger than you realized.

Stuck = Undecided

Here’s the reframe that really hit me: feeling “stuck” doesn’t actually mean you’re stuck. It just means you haven’t decided yet.

The moment you decide—really decide—that you’re not going to stay put anymore, you’re already halfway out the door. You’ve chosen movement over inertia. And that, my friends, is the real first step toward “somewhere.”

So if you’re reading this and something in your gut is whispering that you’ve overstayed your welcome in your own life, maybe this is your sign. Maybe this is your J.P. Morgan moment.

Because “somewhere” won’t come find you. You’ve got to decide to go looking for it.

Until next time—here’s to the power of deciding not to stay where we are.