The Life That's Waiting

A sample of The Life That's Waiting

The Life That’s Waiting

Brianna Wiest

Thought Catalog Books

thoughtcatalog.com

Copyright © 2025 Brianna Wiest.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior written consent and permission from Thought Catalog.

Published by Thought Catalog Books, an imprint of Thought Catalog, a digital magazine owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Co. Inc., an independent media organization founded in 2010 and based in the United States of America. For stocking inquiries, contact stockists@shopcatalog.com.

Produced by Chris Lavergne and Noelle Beams
Art direction and design by KJ Parish
Circulation management by Isidoros Karamitopoulos
Author photo by Ashley Klassen

thoughtcatalog.com | shopcatalog.com

First Edition, Limited Edition Print
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-965820-01-8

For my readers.

Read This When…

1. You Can't Just Let Yourself Be Happy — 15
2. Your Heart Is Breaking And It Feels Like It Will Never Heal — 27
3. You Don't Understand Why People Are So Unkind — 41
4. You're Doing Everything Right But Nothing Is Coming Together — 47
5. You Don't Yet Have The Life You Want — 53
6. You Don't Understand How Something That Once Seemed So Meant For You Turned Out So Wrong — 57
7. You Feel Like You'll Never Get Past The Challenge In Front Of You — 67
8. You Can't Stop Comparing Yourself To Others — 73
9. You Want To Change Your Life But You Don't Know Where To Start — 87
10. You Care Too Much About What Other People Think — 97
11. You Don't Feel Worthy Of Love — 101
12. You Don't Know What You Want — 109
13. You're Always Waiting For Something Bad To Happen — 135
14. You Need To Let Go Though It Hurts To Do So — 141
15. You Feel Completely Lost In Life — 145
16. You Feel Alone And Don't Understand Why — 149
17. You Don't Know What Your Purpose Is — 169
18. You Aren't Sure You'll Find What's Meant For You — 179
19. You Feel Misunderstood — 183
20. You're Paralyzed By Fear — 187
21. You Feel Like You Have To Accept All Criticism In Order To Grow — 197
22. You Don't Know Whether To Hold On Or Let Go — 203
23. You've Lost Hope — 209
24. You're Holding Yourself Back — 213
25. You Don't Know What To Do Next — 217
26. You Feel Like You're Hitting Your Upper Limit — 221
27. You Feel Stuck Or As Though Nothing Will Ever Change — 225
28. You Feel Like Everything Is Falling Apart — 233

Foreword

Brianna messages me from her house on top of a mountain in California, confiding in me that she is trying to conceive a book that could carry people while they navigate the most hopeful and the most hollow moments of life. She prefaces the message by saying that it’s something she has been trying to transmute since she started writing many books ago, that the idea has always been a seed in her mind, that she has been fighting to alchemize it into existence. She proceeds to send me the most beautiful, unvarnished concept for a book called The Life That’s Waiting.

She does this a lot—speaking hope into existence without realizing that she’s in a channel of her own, talking about the things she wants to build, the things she hopes to see exist in this world, as if she’s dancing with the words in her mind, as if all external noise has calmed, has quieted and she is in her own vacuum of creativity, her own atmosphere. It is an incredible thing to bear witness to—the inception of her genius, the small threads of thought that go on to become the books that impact the world in ways that change it.

This is the version of Brianna I am often gifted with. The friend. The artist. The voice piece to something greater, something protected, something that is rare and living inside of her.

However, to the outside world—Brianna is a different force. She is the person who has written nine books that millions of human beings have held with such tenderness. People look to her to help them make sense of their journeys in a way that is both wise and also pressing, a gentle but firm reminder that we often don’t deserve the things that have happened to us, but that we owe it to ourselves to heal, to grow, to magnify our perception of ourselves, and therefore the possibilities that are accessible to us—the lives that are waiting for us on the other side of our discomfort.

And when we read these things, when they make impact with our souls, when they break through our exterior in a way that feels transformative, we often see the author as someone who is all-knowing, someone who has always had the answers. But the beautiful thing about Brianna is that she will be the first person to admit that she hasn’t. She writes from a place of learning, rather than knowing. She writes the words she needed to hear when she was younger, the words she needed to hear when she was navigating doubt, when she was learning how to let go, when she was elbowing her way back into her heart, when she was redefining what it meant to hope, to trust, to love. And in this way, she conceives books that help for those who read them to do the same.

The Life That’s Waiting is that kind of book. It will not give you a ten-step, measured list on how to become the person you hope to be. But it will hold your hand through the experiences that are shaping you. It will remind you, on your darkest days, on your most confused days, on the days that swell within your chest, that you are not alone. That someone else has walked this journey, that someone else has endured the same things, that someone else has made it through, has healed the hurt, has felt the fear. And it will act as a balm for whatever questions you have. An honest collection of words that you can turn to when you need a voice of reason, when you need a soft landing. A genuine collection of words you can turn to when you need to believe that the world has not forgotten you, that there is more to feel, that there is more to have faith in, that there is more to become, that there is a life that is waiting for you, that is reaching for you, on even your hardest days.

I know this book will inspire you to reach back.

I hope you do.

—Bianca Sparacino

Introduction

In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston said that there are "years that ask questions, and years that answer." If that is true, and I do very much believe it is, this book is the answer to a question I began asking myself many years ago.

This is the first idea I ever had for a book, and I had it long before I knew someone like me could even write books. I was 19 years old, and distinctly remember wishing that there was something that could act as a field guide to being human, like "an encyclopedia of feelings," as I phrased it back then. I remember wishing I had a companion guide to life, where someone could walk me through the things you don’t always learn about in a formal way but that shape and inform your experience of being alive nonetheless.

Though I can’t believe it took me this many years to finish this book, I also believe there’s something important in the timing. This version is imbued with something I couldn’t have accessed any sooner than I did. Through the process, I began to discover that the words were pouring out of some part of me that I didn’t even know was there. As though I had been living out the answers for so many years—seeking, finding, and noting—and then finally putting the pieces together.

No matter what crossroads you may find yourself at, it is my sincerest hope that there will be something within this book that can act as a sort of anchor for you, a North Star directing you back toward what you know is true.

Because what I know for sure is that behind the life you are trying to hold together, on the other side of the life you are forcing to work...is the life that is waiting. The life that finds you when you let go of everything that’s standing in its way. The life that’s been there all along. The life that sustains itself, the life where things come together, and stay. The life that you know, deep down, is meant to be yours. The life that’s always just one decision away.

If, on your way to it, you lose your direction—I hope you pick up these pages.

While you’re reading them, I hope you take what helps and leave what doesn’t, and let those untouched parts rest there for another person to find them, even if that person is you, someday down the road. I hope you tuck what you find into your back pocket, and if the hour ever comes when you are wondering what to do next, I hope that you discover you’ve already planted a seed back to your sanity.

More than anything, I hope you remember that I don’t know anything. Listen only if the song I’ve sung to bring myself home is the one that reminds you of where yours may be.

Only if the things I tell myself are answers to the questions you didn’t know you were asking.

Only if my voice sounds like the one you remember but haven’t been able to find.

This is not my offering, this was just me trying to sweep the dust out of my house.

If it cleans yours too, you owe me nothing.

Live.

Do everything you’ve ever dreamed.