Søren Kierkegaard
Waiting Until You Understand
Life is understood looking back, but it can only be lived looking ahead
Journals, entry IV A 164 (1843); only the phrases common to the translations are quoted, the rest is our wording
You want to understand it fully before you choose. Kierkegaard asks why that moment never arrives.
What actually happened?
In 1843 Kierkegaard noted in his journal that philosophy is right to say life must be "understood backwards". But, he added, people forget the other proposition: that it must be "lived forwards". The entry is only a few lines long. You have to decide while you still cannot see, because seeing clearly comes after the doing. Which means "I will decide when I have thought it through" is itself a decision.
Two ways of reading, each half the job
Looking back, events join up, so "the signs were obvious" feels like plain fact. The person looking ahead has no such line, only a scatter of points that have not yet joined.
At the interview you cannot tell which firm will fold; three years later colleagues say there were signs.
Waiting for a moment that does not come
The moment when things are clear always sits after the doing. Someone who keeps waiting is not getting clearer; they are handing the decision to time, and what time picks for you is often "not chosen".
The career change you put off for two years: others in your field have made it work or hit a wall, and you have learned nothing from either.
Move, and keep reading backwards
He does not say stop thinking. He wants both: take a step on the part you already understand, then look back over it, and only then is there something to read for the next step.
Try it for three months, and on the last day write one page: what I only understand now.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: You have thought about it for a long time and feel a little more clarity would settle it.
Ask first: Is the information I still lack something I can look up, or something I can only learn by going? Look up the first within three days; for the second, pick a direction you can undo and take one step.
Where it goes wrong: Using it to say stop thinking and just jump. He means thinking and going take turns, not that going replaces thinking.
Lines to keep
Looking back makes sense of it; only going forward gets you there.
Seeing clearly comes after the doing.
Waiting is letting time choose for you.
Same situation, other people are asking
Every option makes sense and I can't choose.They're all good ideas. That's exactly the problem.I'm climbing and it isn't the thing I wanted.What I want to do and what I should do are two different things.Too many paths · all 12 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.