There is no such thing as perfect timing

"If you wait for perfect conditions to seize an opportunity, you'll be waiting till the day you die." - Mark Batterson

How many times in your life have you faced an opportunity disguised as uncertainty?

Think about this for a moment.

You live in a world where you have access to seemingly unlimited information. Rather than freeing you to take decisive action, for many this "information overload" leads to a kind of paralysis. 

It is as if the more input you receive the more hesitant you become.  As a result, you focus on potential failure than likely success. This is a subtle yet distinct difference.

With the former, you usually get locked into a perpetual verification/re-verification cycle, in which you wait for the right timing or "perfect conditions" before making your move. In your career, this usually happens when you want to ask for a raise or seek a promotion.

Unfortunately this confines you to a reactive state of unfulfilled hope, as you depend upon external factors to properly align the stars in your favor. This is a waiting game that you will never win.

In terms of the latter, by focusing your attention on being successful, you become proactive. You look for ways to leverage what you know to sell yourself and your ideas.

Is there is risk . . . absolutely. Anytime you take decisive action you put yourself out there, and in the process expose yourself to possible rejection and/or failure. 

What is the best way to deal with this risk reality, when doing nothing and hoping for the best are not viable options?

Adopt A Baseball Mindset

America's favorite pastime became so because of the great lessons we can learn from a game that is played as much between one's ears, as it is on the diamond.

In the following excerpt from my How To Make 2015 Your Breakout Year Guide, I explain what I mean:

Think of a baseball player for a moment.

Do you know that the best hitters in the game fail to get a hit between 60 to 70 percent of the time they step up to the plate?

Now imagine for a moment if they dwelled on all those times at bats that they failed to get a hit, as opposed to focusing their energies on their batting technique and taking their best swings at the pitches they like.  What outcome would they likely achieve. 

The key to overcoming the fear of failure is to approach any situation with the mindset of a Winston Churchill who said that "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts!" 

In other words, the best way to overcome fear (and indecisiveness) is to continue to move forward as opposed to analysing, denying or for that matter fighting it.

By continually moving forward, you will learn from your failures, and build on your successes, turning every situation into a win-win scenario.

So What's Holding You Back?  

Like a baseball player in a slump, is your career stuck in neutral?

What is keeping you from pulling the trigger and taking your fair share of swings at the plate of opportunity?

The following quick quiz will help you to determine if you are heading to the dugout or rounding the bases towards home.

1. Does the fear of failure stop you from taking risks?
2. Do you see failure as a permanent set-back that reflects on you personally?
3. Does your self-talk reinforce barriers to success by holding you back?
4. Do those around you encourage you to play it safe? 

Quiz Result Observations 

Your answers to the above questions will say a great deal regarding your state of mind.

For example, if you see failure as permanent or debilitating, then you are more focused on what could go wrong and less likely to make a move. 

What you need to do is stop thinking about what could go wrong, and start thinking about what will go right.

The moment you start to think in these terms, is the very moment that you will begin to realize that your timing is more favorable than you ever imagined.

Now that's what I call perfect timing! 

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