#25: They won't wait for you

A few weeks ago in my garden I noticed that plums and apples have started to fall. I eventually took the time to save some of them from inevitably rotting away in the grass. While doing so I decided to stop blaming myself for having waited so long to pick them up, and comforted myself with the pleasant idea of the delicious homemade marmalade and pies that my harvest would surely become. Sweet relief and satisfaction!
But the story doesn’t end there.
I placed the basket on the porch just steps from my door and let it sit there for nearly a week. Don’t ask me why.
When I finally made the time to deal with the basket, the fruit was overripe, crushed and rotten.
They didn’t wait for me.

And yet, I've already missed the rendez-vous with cherries a couple of months ago.
This time, I was looking forward to the abundant and gorgeous Napoleonic cherries that would soon ripen.
This time, I came (too) early.
I walked around the tree every day for more than a week before they were ready, watching them turn from green to yellow, from yellow to yellow-pink…
“A couple more days and they will be perfectly juicy and crisp!”
A week later I was just too busy with my work to be able to give them any of my attention.
When I finally made it out to the cherry tree, not one cherry was left. Not one! All had been eaten, either by worms in the grass or birds on the branches.
They didn’t wait for me.

1/ When the time is right, the time is right.
After it’s time it’s not time, before it’s time it’s not time,
Timing is everything in life.
A great idea shared with bad timing is a missed shot.
A wonderful person met at the wrong time is a missed connection.
A critical action implemented too soon might (unfortunately) have no impact.
A change management mission lead too late is hard work for few results.

Managing the right timing is art.
What kind of artist are you?

2/ Everyone has their own agenda.

Mother Nature has her own schedule, she doesn’t wait for you to be ready or available. People, organizations and even material things have their own agendas.
Who waits for you to be ready or available? The truth is; probably nothing and nobody but your mother.
Consider that it is your primary responsibility to show up on time.

Enable yourself to be available in the moment to seize time-sensitive opportunities when they happen along your path.
What are yours, right now?

3/ Honor what you have when you have it ­­– That’s momentum.
Plums, apples, cherries… What if they were people, job opportunities, soulmates, business deals?
Acknowledge them. Possibilities fade away if you don’t grab them when they call to you.
When it comes to vital things, stalling or postponing is not always possible or recommended.  Like with fresh food, the damage from waiting too long is visible. The same goes for health: sooner or later, the you become living proof of the consequences.
However, regarding the Intentions-Projects-Dreams-Actions (IPDA) that are vital for your own accomplishment and fulfillment, you have no tangible signal that you’ve waited too long by not honoring them.
Revisit and reconsider your IPDA-storage system if you have any.

If you don’t want to wake up remorseful and regretful in the years to come, look at where they are now. Still on trees, on the grass, in the basket… left somewhere?
You can be certain they won’t wait for you.