Recently I stumbled upon a quote by the well-known clergyman, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. He said, “Patience is power. Patience is not the absence of action; rather it is “timing.” It waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.” On its face, it sounds like sound advice, wait on the right time to act, for the right principles, and in the right way. However, as I review the things that have taken place in my life, I recognize some of the things that I am most proud of my life would not have occurred had I chosen to wait for the perfect time to do it.
I have come to believe that perfect timing is an illusion. No matter what it is that you want to do, there will be a reason why it’s not the “perfect time” to do it. If you wait for the perfect time to do it, the opportunity may come and go, or the problem will have been solved, but something else has now come in and taken the place of your previous problem, and it will still not be the right time. There is no such thing as perfect timing. If there is something that you need to do to fulfill your purpose, don’t wait until the water in the pool goes from cold to warm, jump in and get drenched from head to toe.
When I made my first career change, from banking to ministry, it was not the right time. I had three young children. I would need to leave my job and move to the Midwest. I would also not be able to hold a full-time job and go to school full-time. The expectations of the school and the volume of work assigned by each teacher — you could only work 10 hours a week and each class required at least two hours of study each day — made it impossible to hold a full-time job. The truth is, had I waited for the perfect time, I probably would’ve never completed seminary, and might’ve never had some of the greatest experiences of my life. So, don’t wait, jump in the pool, and get drenched from head to toe.
Why should you do that? Because when you jump in, the water will not get warmer, but your body will adjust to the coldness of the water temperature. One of the reasons we don’t go forward because the timing is not perfect is because we often spend a lot of time worrying about things that could happen, and might not happen. When I packed my bags and headed for the University Campus, there were so many things going through my mind that had to do with all the things that could go wrong. Most of those things did not happen, I spent three and a half years in seminary, it wasn’t without its challenges, but I graduated and went on to a great 20-year run in Pastoral Ministry.
Why did that happen? Because there are two ways to handle what life throws at you: you can be passive and allow life to take you where it wants, or you can take control of the steering wheel. I chose to manage the steering wheel. I didn’t spend time worrying about things that hadn’t happen yet. I’ve learned that if you take care of the crucial day to day things in your life, you will not have to deal with lots of urgent things, and will not often be in crisis. The reason things usually become urgent is that we didn’t take care of them while they were just important. There will be some urgent things that come out of nowhere and catch you off guard. Deal with them when they come, and don’t stress yourself if it hasn’t happened.
I decided almost two years ago to go down a new path. That means traveling unknown roads and experiencing new adventures. The timing was definitely not perfect. I jumped into the pool without making the right preparations. As a result, the landing wasn’t smooth. I made quite a few mistakes early on because I wasn’t quite prepared for the leap I took – I’m beginning to recover from some of these errors.
However, it is also true that as much as I can identify the things I should’ve done differently, and as much as I recognize that the timing wasn’t quite right, I also know that the timing would never be perfect. Jumping in the pool, even though the timing wasn’t perfect has its benefits. I’ve grown stronger and become smarter from this experience, there has been a lot of self-discovery, some of which surprised me, and I know for sure that challenges in life may bend me, but they cannot break me.
So, what about you? How many things have you put on the shelf because you are waiting for perfect timing? Let me share with you the words of Gary Ryan Blair, “You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.” I suggest you put your bathing suit on and don’t stick your toe in the water to measure the temperature of the pool, just jump in and get wet from head to toe. You will surprise yourself.
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