Have you ever felt stalled on the brink of something really good happening but needed just a little bit of...something...to break your life's inertia and have everything fall into place?
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig, has a word for that:
justing n. the habit of telling yourself that just one tweak could solve all of your problems - if only you had the right haircut, if only you found the right group of friends, if only you made just a little more money, if only he noticed you, if only she loved you back, if only you could find the time, if only you were confident - which leaves you feeling perpetually on the cusp of a better life, hanging around the top of the slide waiting for one little push.
And the author's explanatory etymology of the word is almost as enlightening as the definition:
From just, only, simply, merely + jousting, a sport won by positioning the tip of your lance at just the right spot, at just the right second.
Truth is...justing is alarmingly like whining, isn't it? Or blaming? It's like placing the responsibility for my lack of personal progress squarely on the shoulders of my circumstances rather than my own inactivity and fear.
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