Timing is everything in life. It does not matter how good you are or how hard you work. It mostly depends on timing. In many ways, time influences our life from the basics like waking up, to serious life-changing decisions. When I worked at a well-known restaurant, I got job offers from big companies like Zalando or invitations to different parties. It is so obvious, yet many of us forget it from time to time. That is, any level of skill is amplified by appropriate timing.
Here is the opposite thinking: When you got an invitation to a job offer to a big company or a party with new people, do you hesitate? Hell no! You take this opportunity and do not deny these invitations!
As we have been of our Focus Funnel, each stage has presented us with a critical question to answer.
- Eliminate stage, it was: “Is this task something I can live without?”
- Automate stage, it was: “Can this task be systemized?”
- Delegate stage, it was: “Can this task be performed by someone else?”
If the answer is no to those questions, then guess what? This task is all yours. In the Procrastinate stage, it is:
“Can this wait until later?”. It sounds paradoxical, but in this permission, it is to Procrastinate on purpose! I am asking you that you not take any action.
Patience and Procrastination
Before I even got my high school degree, I applied to a private university in West Germany and got accepted even before writing my exams. I got lazy because my path was set up already. As a result, I slack off and did not finish well with my grades. Until today, I struggle with the consequences of my decision. Instead of rushing, I should wait, breathe, and take time to reconsider my future career path. I did not have patience at all.
Delay actions or waiting are either called Patience or Procrastination.
- “Waiting to do something because we know it is something that we should do but we do not really want to do it.” It is called Procrastination.
- “Waiting because we decide that now is not the right time.” It is called Patience.
Clearly, we want to be patient when we want to do the tasks. And Patience is a fundamental skill everyone should have. Patience is giving: yourself time to breathe, a margin in your life and not try to do everything, to slow down, a moment to gather perspective, or letting you focus on something bigger.
On the other hand, procrastinating is: When you should be making this call for sales but you are afraid. Going to the gym but you do not. You need to have that difficult conversation but you tell them you are busy with other trivial stuff.
To know when to be patient is an enormous skill. Mostly, you do not know when the time is right. Then you should listen to your guts.
Why wait until the Last minute
When I was a child, a German friend of my parents told me: “First the work, then you can have fun.” This basically means every time you have the opportunity to finish some tasks, do it right now. Relating to doing homework, it makes sense to me. I finished, most of the time, all my homework on Friday to enjoy my weekend.
However, it kills me when my teacher forgot to collect homework or even mentioned it. And, no I was not one of the dudes who reminded the teacher that we had homework. It was a pity that I invest time doing the homework. And that is what Multipliers avoid doing. They never act too early or too late, just on time. Because timing is everything.
Acting too early can cause tremendous damage, as you might know. Next week, my friends and I will go to Amsterdam to celebrate the birthday of a friend. Unlucky, one of her friends accepted an apartment deal without knowing the date of her last exam. In the end, she and her boyfriend had to cancel the trip. Nevertheless, we booked the place and have to pay for it. The soon birthday kid had to pay the rest.
As you can see acting early and late will cause damage.
So, why should we wait?
Things changes. Plans changes. Dates changes. Prices changes. Technology changes. Weather changes. If you take action too early, you might be affected by the unexpected change, which can be avoided.
- You emptied your account to buy a car. Three days later, you see on an auction that an apartment is sold with a discount of 75%. But you did not have the money: You suddenly have a painful opportunity cost.
- You wanted so badly to have a project ready. By rushing it your ideas and your platform did not have time to develop and materialize: You have rework cost.
- You were obsessed with the idea of being in love again that you rushed and take any kind of guy. Later to find out it does not work out: You have every type kind of cost imaginable!
The permission of Incomplete – why things are never finished
At the beginning of the year, I had a lot of time, a lot of free time. While working on the workdays and working out, I had the whole weekend free. I did not know how to use it wisely last year. So, I decided to build this blog. In the beginning, I had problems with writing blog articles. I realy had to study English again after I posted a horrible article. Unreadable and unstructured. In the hope that I can reach my goals, I dove deeper into blogging, researching, improving, and reading.
At one point, I had this annoying voice in my head who asked repeatedly: “Hey, dude why are you sleeping? Get the next blog post done! Your 50 Viewers are waiting for you!” I was stressed, not the bad kind of stress, like the good one? The voice was pushing me, it still does. In fact, it stole my happiness from time to time.
The fear of not being good enough
However, I realized that no one was pushing me, just me. I feared not to be good enough for you guys. In addition, I remembered my chef’s quote: “If you start an IT project, you are never done!” It surprised me how accurate this quote can relate to all of us who have goals.
It does not matter how fast you are. There will always be a new deadline, a new project, a new goal.
When you realize that no amount of tasks being completed, no amount of trophies being won, and no amount of money being collected will ever release them from that story that has been holding them, hostage, for all these years.
Rather, all they have to do is simply decide to give themselves the permission of the Incomplete.
The permission of the Incomplete means that you will realize that their work is never done. That everything is always a work in progress. This permission lets you know that even when things seem “finished”, they are not. And that there is no finish line, also there is no deadline. Hammer this in your head, learn to be okay with certain things, and embrace the idea that things really can be good enough.
If you can learn the principle of patience, you will be free of the pressure of urgency. And start your life at a comfortable pace, “waiting” for the right time rather than forcing it.
Summary – Timing is everything
To summarize, timing is everything. In addition, many people, who believe in destiny and fate with timing. It is not a fate to meet someone, it is not a fate to be hurt or threaten badly. No one decides who will be punished or rewarded. It depends on what you do at the right time. Either you lack patience and act too early which leads to damage that you can avoid. And in this rushing society, it is a good principle to learn, to stand still, to breathe for a second and to reflect on everything.
Or you act too late, procrastinate, and miss many opportunities.
The only way is to act right on time. But when is the right time? That is the only question I cannot answer for you. Just trust your instincts, and time will tell if your decision was right.
I hope you treasure more the value of being patient and you are convinced that timing is everything.
In the next post, we will discuss the Focus Funnel overall and the Permission to Concentrate.