Perfect Timing Doesn’t Exist. Stop Waiting For It

Perfect Timing Doesn’t Exist. Stop Waiting For It
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/perfect-timing-doesnt-exist-stop-waiting-for-it/
July 19th, 2007 by Shaun Boyd

It bothers me when I hear people describe a personal set of conditions that need to be met before they can make the next move in their life.

Most often, they’re just making excuses — creating obstacles that aren’t actually there, placing the blame on some outside force they can’t control, and choosing to let day after day of inaction turn into many years of waiting for their cosmos to align.

In other words, they stay where they’re comfortable until it’s the perfect time to move on.
“Once I find a better job, then I’ll leave this one.”“Once I save enough money, then I’ll stop living at my parents’ place.”“Once I’m out of this stressful period of my life, then I’ll quit smoking.”

What’s even worse are the people who connect their obstacles in a way that makes their current situation circular, like a trap they will never escape: “I can’t pursue my dream career unless I leave my job, but I can’t pay the bills unless I stay at my job.”

Then there’s also the people who have a thousand complaints about their life. They typically don’t even explain any connections between their obstacles, they just rant about anything that’s causing them stress, but do nothing to correct any of it. They’re so overwhelmed they don’t even know where to begin, and their easiest option is to give up.

If any of this sounds familiar, then my advice to you is this: Stop waiting for that “perfect time” to make your next move. Perfect timing doesn’t exist. It’s fictional. You’ll wait forever for it.

There will never be a perfect time to leave your job, move out of state, and start from scratch. Similarly, there will never be a perfect time to get married, have a baby, or have another baby. That’s because no matter when you make these choices, they will involve risk — and it’s the risk involved that makes choices like these easier to put off until another day.

What you often fail to realize is you’re not just waiting, you’re stagnating . You stop growing, hinder your advancement, and basically become dull as a result of your choice to keep life on pause.

If your current job is holding you back, then you should quit.

Seriously. You can quit your dead-end job today. Just walk straight up to your boss and say “I quit.” Leave and don’t come back. The place won’t crumble without you. They’ll find a replacement and be just fine.

Then hop in your car and drive across the country just to see that you can. Just for fun. Just to help you remember that you have a choice.

No car? Hitchhike.
Not your thing? Walk.

I’m sure you see my point: You have more freedom than you realize.

So if you want to create change in your life, then stop waiting. Let go of perfection and act. Once you have, you’ll only regret you didn’t start doing it sooner.


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The Myth of “Someday”

The Myth of “Someday”
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/the-myth-of-someday/
September 17th, 2007 by Shaun Boyd

I used to play a game with a friend of mine. It was like word association, but instead of taking turns saying the first word that came to mind, we’d take turns telling one another our wishes.
We ended each turn with the word “someday.” We used it like people with two-way radios use the word “over” — to indicate whose turn it was to speak. A typical conversation resulting from our game went something like this:

I want to travel the world someday.I want to backpack across the United States someday.I want to go to Hawaii someday.I want to go surfing someday.I want to learn to sail someday.

and it continued in that manner, always in the form of: "I want to (do something) someday."

My friend and I agree that although this game helped us learn about one another’s aspirations in life, it did not help us actually accomplish them. The problem was clear: “Someday” is too ambiguous. It’s not a goal, a deadline, or an estimation — it’s an unspecified time in the future so indefinite that it’s borderline fantasy. As a result, it tends to promote inaction rather than action.
Telling yourself that you want to do something someday doesn’t accomplish much — yet it’s human nature to think this way. People commonly proclaim “I want to get married someday,” or “I want to be rich someday.”

They have good reason for being so unspecific: It’s comforting to make goals that lack a due date. There’s no pressure to get it done immediately because there’s always tomorrow. In other words:
There’s always the rest of your life for your perfect “Someday” to arrive. Unfortunately, that’s the myth.

The truth is, you won’t experience that “Someday” you’re looking forward to unless you take action today. When you convince yourself that you have the rest of your life to do something, you’ll experience day after day of inaction until you’ve lost your chance to actually do it.

I learned this through a close friend of mine who, tragically, learned it the hard way:
His mother went to the hospital for routine surgery. She died. She was among the few “one in a million” cases where the patient doesn’t wake up from the anesthetic.

Suddenly, all of the plans that my friend hoped to do with his mom “Someday” could no longer be done. She was gone, and she took all the future opportunities with her. There was no time left to learn how to make her deviled eggs. There was no time left to make a cookbook. There was no time left to even say goodbye.

That’s why you can’t make plans for someday. One of my favorite authors writes how “folks who have one foot in the future and the other in the past and spend their time pissin all over today because of it.” (Stephen King, from Four Past Midnight) — I agree wholeheartedly.
If you find yourself saying “I wish I had (done something differently),” the thing to do is let it go. Don’t live in your past .
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/dont-live-in-your-past/

If you find yourself saying “I want to (do something) someday,” the thing to do is change your outlook. Don’t live in your future .
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/dont-live-in-your-future/

Remember, “Someday” is a myth — all you have is the present. Live in it .
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/learn-to-live-in-the-present-so-you-dont-miss-out-on-life/


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