Timing

I was taking my son Payton to school this morning, and I was amazed at how crucial timing can be. Let me explain. Yesterday we left the house at 7:30 and he ended up being late to school by twenty minutes. It took fifty minutes to get him to school. This morning we left at 7:00 and we got to his school by 7:35. It took thirty-five minutes. We traveled the same distance on two different occasions, yet one day it took fifty minutes the next day only thirty-five. Haven't you experienced something similar in your life? It seems that there is a window of opportunity in life that when you jump on it everything works out well, yet if you miss that window of opportunity it doesn't exactly work out well. Think about the trip to my son's school. By leaving half an hour earlier we saved fifteen minutes on the trip. Yeah I know, what's fifteen minutes, right? Well in terms of time it doesn't seem like much, but in terms of percentage it's huge. Fifteen minutes is 30% of fifty minutes, which would mean we saved that much time by getting an early start. Okay, what am I getting at?

Now, let's look at your life and mine. What if success in life had something to do with timing? Not so much because timing is everything in terms of getting to where you want to get to. After all we did still get to the school, just late. Let's look at business. Certainly you could get a McDonald's franchise now and still be successful with it, but it wouldn't be the same rate of return on investment as it would be if you had gotten one thirty years ago. The opportunity is different now. What about health and fitness? Well if you started and kept it up when you were young, it would be easier than if you started in your thirties. Again you could still reach a high level of fitness in your thirties, but the task would be harder. What about learning an instrument? Certainly learning at an earlier age has its advantages.

Back to the school situation as a metaphor. I'll be honest with you, there was a moment we were moving so slowly that I wasn't sure when we'd get to his school, and I thought about turning around and taking him back home. The logic was I don't know when we're going to get there. He could end up being an hour late, in which case, what's the point. Perhaps that is the kind of thinking that sets in for people when they get up against an obstacle while pursuing their goals.

Using the examples I've given regarding business, health and musical instruments, the later you start there are certain things that become obstacles to overcome that would not have existed at an earlier age. Time especially. In my life, for example, I started playing the piano at an early age and I had a ton of time to practice. Now as an adult I would need to rearrange a bunch of things and carve out the time. I want to be very clear about this, it can still be done, but the challenges are greater and it's these challenges that are so easy to give in to.

How about this one, haven't you had one of those great ideas that you thought was THE IDEA, and you did nothing with it. What happened over time? You probably talked yourself out of it, right? Either that or you allowed someone else to talk you out of it, right? or You put it on the back burner so long that you eventually just forgot about it, right? Only later when you wre walking through the mall to find YOUR IDEA at a kiosk making money for someone else did you remember it, again. Only too late.

So what of all this and timing? Well one of the unique things about great timing is that you only realize you capitalized on it or you missed out on it in hindsight. Like in my example about taking my son to school, I learned from experience. How can you absolutely know if the timing is right or not? You won't know if you don't go, so my take on it is this...NOW! NOW is the best time, while the idea is fresh, while the passion is strong, the desire is hot! Here's what else I've experienced, by taking action NOW you create opportunity and an opportunity seized is an opportunity created. What do I mean? Every time you take action, a new opportunity opens up. Metaphorically speaking, you can't get to the next door until you open and walk through the one that's in front of you...NOW!!

Live FREE!