How often have we heard that we need to have a five-year plan or a 10-year plan? Several things have occurred recently that made me think about why we wait.
The rationale for waiting is typically completely made up. I started thinking about all the time I’ve wasted waiting for certain things to happen. But by the time we get to a certain age, what are we waiting for? In most cases, there is no justification for waiting at all.
A few weeks ago, I was watching the news in my doctor’s waiting room when they reported that actor Bill Paxton had died of complications from heart valve surgery. They showed a picture of his aortic valve, a bicuspid valve, which is the same condition I have. And my father had. Paxton was one year older than I am.
I’ve had a lot of great client calls lately. Watching some of these people go through tremendous changes is really inspiring to me. I thought about what Jason G. told me: “I realized that I was waiting and that I didn’t have to wait.” This was his aha! moment in our coaching. It turned out to be pretty important to me, too.
Paxton’s death made me think about how none of us know how much time we have—how much time is left to achieve our goals, treasure our families, and finish off that bucket list. And Jason’s epiphany reminds me that most waiting is based on the idea “I have to wait for fill-in-the-blank before I can fill-in-the-blank.” It’s a cliché but still true: waiting for that contract, this house, true love, more money, waiting for almost anything is nearly always a waste of precious time. Nothing happens in the future; everything happens right now. So why do we relegate our big plans and passions and dreams to the future?
By putting off all my goals until the future, I’m really just procrastinating. We never say that out loud, but that’s what it is.
Busting past perspective plateaus
Perspective busters shake up our points-of-view so we can overcome all the hesitation that keeps us from taking on what we think are insurmountable tasks. Next week I’ll outline a number of great perspective busters that you can try. Sometimes just shifting or subverting the way you look at things can change everything. I don’t want to wait to figure all this out on the operating table. Do you?
If you can’t wait till next week, send me an e-mail at Scott@doubledaryou.us and I can give you a sneak preview. Why wait?
photo credit: Tim Cummins IMG_3124-1 via photopin (license)
