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Many of us have been waiting for the right moment. The right moment to... ask the boss for a raise; find a job that's more satisfying; pitch your new product idea; propose; start writing your book; launch your own blog; suggest that better way of doing things.
So we wait. We wait until the time is right.
Until after the newly re-org'd leadership is more settled. Until after your kids are older. Until you get the promotion. Until it feels like you're not in the middle of things.
But the reality is... you and everyone else will always be in the middle of things. Life doesn't have a pause button. And if you wait for the current swirl to calm, it'll be replaced by swirl - going the other direction!
Stop waiting for the "perfect moment" and make that moment now.
In his book, Coaching the Artist Within, Eric Maisel's dedicates a chapter on creating "in the middle of things."
You must be able to create in the middle of things, or else you will not create. You must learn to take whatever practical and psychological actions are necessary to combat the anti-creating forces that surround you and live within you.
He mentions how some have determined to accomplish things during even the most severe crises. "But for most of us even ordinary, everyday crises stop us in our tracks."
"We only possess Newton's theory about planetary motion and calculus because, terrified by the plague, he fled college and returned home to ride out the Black Death and to incubate his theories. Most of his fellow students died like flies."
"The Russian composer Shostakovich faced the collapse of his country, invasion by the Nazis, the horrors of Stalin, and death by the millions and composed three war symphonies. Not only did he compose them, he butted heads with Stalin, who demanded that he compose heroic, triumphant music. Shostakovich ignored Stalin, rounded up starving musicians, found instruments, put together full concerts attended by desperate souls dressed in rags, and fought a personal fight to keep up the spirits of his compatriots."
Luckily most of us aren't dealing with a plague. And while upper management can be pretty harsh at times, you aren't laboring under a regime.
If you wait for a better time... better than this very moment, if you wait until you feel settled, divinely inspired, perfectly centered, unburdened of your usual worries, or free of your own skin, forget about it. You will be waiting tomorrow and the next day, wondering why you never managed to begin, wondering how you did such an excellent job of disappointing yourself.
That last sentence sounds gloomy. More than that it's incredibly motivating. You are in control. There is nothing more or less stopping you than it did last week or it will from a year from now. It's all in your control, kiddo.
When you finish this sentence, close your web browser and take your first step against the "anti-creating forces." Make a list, draft a plan, jot your pitch notes, post your resume...Anything that's a first step to making that change happen.
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Comments
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post. I am inspired and have been in a "maybe you should stick up for yourself" mode over the past week or so. Your post gave me some great inspiration to keep fighting for what I believe in, so I'll say it again: thank you!
Posted by: KermitFan | 02.15.08
So glad to have helped KermitFan!
(as in Kermit de frog?)
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Let me know how sticking-up for yourself goes!
-Paul
Posted by: Paul Williams | 02.15.08
GREAT post, Paul. It meshes well with something that Paul Arden says in his book, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be": working from the context of the advertising business, Arden talks about how everyone always wants the "great" client brief. They want to work on the BMW account or the Air Jordan account or whatever. But his advice is like yours: the brief *in hand* is the right brief.
Again, thanks for these thoughts -- I'll be coming back to this one.
Posted by: Tim Walker | 02.15.08
It's a great, and pointed article.
James Brausch talks about taking action
http://www.jamesbrausch.org/never-give-up/
And also (a lot) about how 98% never will. I'd like to, and I'd like to think I am, but I feel stuck halfway in between. Maybe I'm in the 5%, but not the 2% :)
Posted by: Roger Wilkanson | 02.15.08
We work with a lot of technology consultants that are professional procrastinators, when it comes to things they don't enjoy... .mostly sales and marketing related tasks.
Usually the easier way to get them in motion...
Have them handle a marketing campaign (with they loave) the same way they'd handle a big network upgrade... start by breaking the BIG project down into a task list, with start/end dates and a budget.
It's amazing how fast the urge to procrastinate disappears when they realize that they only need to run the first 1/4 mile today... not the entire 26-mile marathon.
Fear of failure is another big inhibitor that prevents people from even showing up to the race.
Thanks for the great post on combating "the anti-creating forces".
Posted by: Joshua Feinberg | 02.20.08