Killing ambitions with incremental delays

There are many things that I consider killers of productivity, excitement, and frankly ambitions. One of them I recently got reminded of is the incremental delay - the delay that knows no definitive end, only a point in time where it is decided if the thing that is supposed to happen must be further delayed (again). Two or three iterations of this and you begin to grow indifferent to that thing, you don’t really care anymore if it will happen or not, and you only crave one thing: a final decision. Even if it was really good news or something that benefits me a lot like a promotion - after some delays, I just want it to end.

Situations with high amounts of uncertainty might necessitate incremental delays. But as soon as they start happening, pay close attention to the actual time frame they are occupying. Delay a decision every month and you’ll see half a year fly by in a blink of an eye. And worse, even after consciously spotting them, it remains hard to set and enforce deadlines for incremental delays, they’re the dangling carrot and I am the ass.