I Want it Now - Navigating the space between epiphany and fulfilment

Einstein, Edison, Mozart, Michelangelo. I’ve often wondered how these genius minds handled the plethora of ideas that ran through them. If they were anything like me, they may have found it frustrating. However, we don’t really know how many of those ideas were not executed. We only know of the ones that were. Let me describe this tension for you, as I’m sure you can relate. 

We see a goal or a vision in sight, we know what it will look like, how it should work, and the results it will yield. Yet for many reasons it’s just not the right time to execute this vision. Maybe your current job doesn’t leave you enough time to work on anything new, maybe family life is the priority right now, or perhaps you don’t yet have the resources and/or skills to pull it off yet. So what do we do when we’re found in this place of tension? Well, for some of us who are impatient (and I’m guilty of doing this more times than I can count) we will put the wheels in motion prematurely. What happens when we do this? Well, we tend to create more problems than solutions, simply because it wasn’t the right time, and we didn’t take the time to anticipate the obstacles. We just went at that thing like a bull in a China shop! So why do we feel the need to execute an idea before it’s time? Is it simply impatience or is it so we can eliminate the chance for people to tell us it’s a bad idea? Let’s be honest, that can be quite deflating to hear. But many times it’s true and we just don’t want to hear it. We’d much rather try and fail and it be our own fault than hear someone say it’s a bad idea, try anyway, and then hear “I told you so”, when it doesn’t work. There can be a lot of shame attached to the latter, and shame makes us feel gross. 

The other reason why we do this is because we’re proud, and we want to be original, the first, a pioneer even! So once the idea is birthed in our minds we feel a sense of urgency to quickly make it happen before anyone else beats us to it. There are some issues with this mindset. Firstly, there’s very little originality left to be found in the 21st Century. Whatever idea you’ve had, it’s more than likely that someone else has also thought of it. So let’s remove that from our thinking. Sure you can improve on an idea and package it as original, but at the end of the day, the Alphabet song was already written as Twinkle Twinkle by Mozart when he was just 3yrs old. Am I suggesting that our creativity is pointless? No, not at all. In fact, without our creative minds we would never find solutions to sticky problems, improve our quality of life, or even enjoy the things that make us human, like music, art, and beauty! What I am implying, is that whatever ideas we do have we should hold on to lightly, because although it feels like ours at the time, it probably wasn’t to begin with. Here’s another thought. Have you ever considered that some of the ideas you have aren’t even for you, but for someone else? (I’ll just leave this right here)

So let’s assume that we’ve gone through the filtering process of what ideas to keep and discard, and now we are wrestling with the question of timing. When do I get to make this spark of brilliance happen!? This is the million dollar question, because the answer will be different for every idea that you have. Unfortunately we make the mistake of not consulting our priorities in this decision making process. If there’s anything you take away from this article let it be this. We must always ask ourselves the question… “WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME RIGHT NOW?” If we don’t answer this question honestly we can fall into the trap of forfeiting the things and people that are most important to us for the sake of our vision. Now this is where we can really struggle to acknowledge the truth because the truth can often mean that we need to wait longer than we would like to. But it doesn’t mean the answer is ‘no’, it’s just ‘not now’. 

I’ve always endeavoured to be a ‘both/and’ kind of person rather than an ‘either/or’ person. This doesn’t come from an ego-driven need to have everything I want. It’s an approach to life that helps me live in an abundant way and in turn be able to give to others more freely. I often use this approach in my decision-making processes about goals and visions because it helps me be patient during the waiting. Sometimes we have goals that aren’t to be executed for another 5 years perhaps. The smartest thing we can do is actually acknowledge the timing of our goals because if we don’t, we can think that a goal that’s meant for another 5 years is actually meant for right now. The problem with this, is that if we try to execute that goal and it doesn’t turn out how we would like, we then slip into a downward spiral of self-depreciation and a belief that we are a failure. The truth is that we didn’t fail, we just got the timing wrong.

By this point, I can hear some of you saying, “But what if I don’t know what the right timing is?” Again, let me point you back to your list of priorities that you have so diligently written down. If you can see that chasing down this goal right now will bring a deficit to the things at the top of that list, then perhaps the timing is not now, it’s later. Is it going to hurt to wait a bit longer? Probably. Will someone else beat you to the punch if you wait? Maybe. Will your sense of self-worth diminish if that happens? Well that is entirely up to you. Will you protect the things that are most important to you and make you happy? Yes, yes you will. The other beautiful thing that happens when we make good choices is that our brain gives us a hit of dopamine making us feel extra proud of ourselves. This is why we can feel a sense of relief when we finally decide what to do.

Here’s the bottom line. Some of us passionately burn with ideas, goals, and visions that feel like a burden sometimes. I totally get it. But if we put into practice the strategies above we will actually feel that burden lighten because we aren’t disregarding these goals, we are simply placing them where they belong, which is the most responsible thing we can do for ourselves, our priorities, and even the goal itself. This is how we embrace the tension between seeing the goal and achieving the goal.

Take a look at this guide below to help simplify the process.