It’s budget time in Trinidad & Tobago — that time of year when everyone, from the corner parlour to corporate boardrooms, pauses to wait.

• Wait to see what the Minister will announce.
• Wait to hear how the numbers fall.
• Wait to decide whether to spend, hire, expand, or retreat.

We are holding a collective breath as if the answer to our next move is hiding in a fiscal statement.

Meanwhile, the world outside is shifting faster than the headlines. Consumer confidence is volatile, the political climate feels like déjà vu, and most businesses are running on “we’ll see.”

Waiting seems like the best thing to do at this point, but keep in mind – waiting isn’t a strategy. Waiting is in fact denial.

Denial in Business Clothing

In The Success Principles, Jack Canfield’s Chapter 30 — Face What Isn’t Working — names what we already know but rarely say out loud:
We stay in denial because it feels safer than actually making a change.

In business, denial sounds reasonable and logical.

• We call it “holding pattern.”
• We call it “monitoring the situation.”
• We call it “waiting for stability.”

But underneath, it’s fear — fear of loss, fear of confrontation, fear of being wrong, fear of exposure. As Canfield puts it, denial is the unconscious strategy we use to protect ourselves from fear.

Denial doesn’t protect us. It just preserves the problem.

Taking 100% Responsibility — Especially Now

You can’t control the budget, the economy, or the government’s next move.
But you can control your own clarity. You can decide to stop tolerating what’s not working — the underperforming product, the role mismatch, the messaging that no longer reflects who you are, the meetings that drain more than they deliver.

The principle is simple but uncomfortable:

You can’t fix what you won’t face.

When you tell the truth about what’s not working, you reclaim power. When you name the fear underneath — What if I lose clients? What if the team resists? What if I fail? — you start leading again.

The Real Alignment Test

Every company I’ve worked with — from startups to established firms — has a version of this moment where nobody’s saying, “This isn’t working.”

That’s not a financial issue. That’s alignment. And the first act of alignment is honesty.

Budget or no budget, a business that can’t tell the truth to itself is already broken.

Facing What Isn’t Working: Three Shifts

1. Replace waiting with witnessing.
   Notice what’s happening in your business right now — not what you hope will happen after the budget, or once the government changes. The market doesn’t pause because we’re uncomfortable.
2. Name what’s true — without blame.
   Canfield’s advice: stop rationalizing. Whether it’s an ineffective leader, a declining service, or misaligned clients, naming the truth isn’t criticism. It’s clarity.
3. Act on what you know.
   Fear thrives in delay. The moment you move — make the call, revise the offer, reset the expectation — fear loses leverage.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where in your business are you waiting instead of facing?
What truth are you avoiding because it feels too risky to name — and what might become possible if you told it?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — writer, possibility thinker, musician, Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, and MCODE Legacy Coach. I help leaders and soul-driven professionals decode the deeper patterns shaping their business, work, identities, and results especially when it look like a performance issue but it’s really misalignment in disguise.

If something in your life or business feels off and you can’t quite name it, message me. Sometimes one conversation is all it takes to see what’s really going on.