Don't Worry About Perfect Timing
Don't get left behind waiting for the 'right time'
To the deep thinkers,
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The desire to start something at the “right” time is usually just a justification for delay. In almost every case, the best time to start is now.
You have to chase your dreams today. Don’t put them off for the day life gets easier, because there will always be hurdles to overcome. There will always be more problems to solve. The reality is, that if you’re putting off your dreams waiting for the perfect moment, then you’re merely procrastinating.
When I was in college I majored in mass communications and journalism. I also interned for a few online blogs and wrote some features for my school’s track and field team. I was developing my writing skills, becoming comfortable crafting a story, doing research, and capturing attention. It was the perfect situation for a writer to grow and work on their craft.
There was one problem though: I wasn’t working hard enough. Don’t get me wrong, I worked hard to pay my way through college, balancing the responsibilities of a full-time student while working to support myself. But I wasn’t applying the same kind of energy to my dream of becoming a writer.
I always made writing my third, fourth—sometimes even my last priority. I kept waiting for the perfect time to go all in, to commit my all to the terrifying proposition of following an unconventional path.
I kept waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Yet, the perfect time never arrived.
Back then, I gave most of my attention and energy to my job and school work. Coupled with my responsibilities, I dealt with relationship issues, suffered multiple mental breakdowns, and underwent a drastic loss of ambition. You know, the typical experience of being a twenty-something-year-old.
So, with everything I was putting ahead of my writing, I told myself that once I graduated college, then I’d finally have the time and energy to chase my dream.
Waiting for the right time, however, was a massive mistake.
The neon sign
Life didn’t get any easier after I graduated college. Things didn’t magically fall into place. All I did was allow myself to get distracted again. Life was simply being life. I was the fool who thought that one day I’d wake up to see a giant neon sign that read:
Now is the PERFECT time to chase your dreams.
And while that sign doesn’t exist, there is a side of us that lives deep within, begging us to make our dreams a priority. You could call this side the inner child or simply a more ambitious version of our past selves. Either way, it’s the side of us that hasn’t given up yet—and as we remain entangled in the comings and goings of the world around us, this version of ourselves sits in the dark, hoping that one day we’ll remember who we were before the world convinced us it was a waste of time to dream.
Waiting for the perfect circumstances will leave you waiting for the rest of your life. If you’ve always wanted to direct an indie film, if you’ve dreamt of recording a musical album—if you, I don’t know, have always wanted to visit Italy—you can’t sit and wait for the perfect set of circumstances. You just have to decide that you’ll make it happen, figure out what you need to do to make it happen, and then take action.
If you have this nagging feeling that you should be doing something different with your life, take the risk. Take the risk that could alter your fate—the risk that your friends and family think is insane. You must go and create the life you want; you can’t sit and hope it magically happens the way you see it in your head.
The power of habits
If you want to start a digital business, instead of waiting for the day when you have a job that doesn’t work you as many hours, or your kids are a little older, or you’ve saved up more money, maybe you dedicate one hour every day to studying whatever it is you want to focus your business on.
Literally, sit at your desk every day for at least an hour and read a book, watch videos, take notes, and develop your ideas. If you’re putting in the work every day, and then take the leap of faith, you won’t feel as crazy, because you’ll know that you’ve prepared. You’ll be confident in yourself because you put in the time.
Rather than emulate the hustle bros you see online, move slowly and with intention and care toward your goals. Dedicate yourself to your passions each day. Those small, consistent steps will compound over time until one day you’ll wake up and realize your dreams are becoming your reality.
Results follow consistent effort. So don’t focus on perfect timing. Focus, instead, on what you can do every day to get just a little bit closer to the life you want.
The trap of inaction
We have no clue what the future holds. So waiting for the universe to present the perfect opportunity before you act is a grave mistake.
I believe in the divine—in cosmic energy and the influence of a higher power on our lives. But beliefs can lead to passivity. We must put in the work rather than sit and hope the universe will hand us the life we want.
Preparation is how you stave off inaction, which itself is a slow death. The type of death you become aware of once you’re old and are bombarded by the regrets of all the things you chose not to do.
As I’ve entered my thirties, I look back fondly at the twists and turns of my life. I smile thinking of those times I took a risk. Whether the outcome was good or bad doesn’t even matter. Those were moments when I felt the most alive. Most of those moments didn’t require a lot of premeditation or planning. I simply knew there was something I wanted to do, and then I figured out how to make it a reality.
So, if you feel that there are changes you need to make, dreams that were left behind—don’t waste any more time.
Sure, you might not achieve all your goals. There will be plenty of things outside of your control that will get in the way. But you have to try. Because your effort is one thing that you can control. The work you put in—nobody can take that away from you.
Take action and be resilient. And when the time comes to take that risk, you’ll have confidence in yourself because you know you did everything possible to achieve your dreams.
This year, I stopped with the excuses and acknowledged that I had to prioritize my dreams, or nothing would ever change. Writing is my art, and I honor my art by showing up each day and writing, even if what I write that day is terrible. That’s fine. Because it’s in the repetition—in the showing up each day—that I get closer to my dreams.
No matter what the future holds for me, writing will be a part of it. I’ve committed. I’ve given myself over to my obsession. I will show up for my art even when the world around me is crumbling.
Will you do the same for your dreams?
What stood out to me this week:
On greatness:
“Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room—until you change that with results.”
-Ryan Holiday, Ego Is The Enemy
You prove your greatness through your actions. It’s not about the circumstances you were born into. It’s not about who you know. It’s not about what you say you’ll do. No—greatness is about checking your ego and knowing you have to act on your ideas. You must believe in yourself and then prove to the world you are who you believe to be through hard work and tenacity. Commit to the work. Then let the results speak for themselves.
On retreating within:
“Sometimes just going within, getting quiet, and listening is where we learn the most about life, or about death. We don’t need to run out and do the bucket list of seeing and doing new things. We just need to sit, listen, and learn.”
-Lee Lipsenthal, Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last
Novel life experiences are great, and there’s certainly a time and place for going out into the world and exploring. But sitting and being with yourself in stillness is sometimes when you can learn the most. It’s when you learn the most about yourself and when you can make sense of your own lived experiences.
🎵Song of the week:
Thank you for your time—let me know how this post resonated with you or share it with a friend.
And as always,
Stay blessed
That nagging feeling that you should be doing that thing that matters to you can really effect your wellbeing. Better to just get to the thing and put in the effort.
Loved this, thank you for the reminders on consistency and commitment. As creatives, I think we constantly need bumps and pushes to keep us from perfection paralysis. Progress is success and success is progress; timing and iterations are just catalysts within that journey.
I wrote something similar a few weeks ago: https://open.substack.com/pub/loafofthought/p/paralyzed-by-perfection?r=i4hj9&utm_medium=ios