Taking the Time

“Commitment is what turns a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions that speak louder than words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.”
– Unsourced

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
– Anonymous

You may have heard of Thoreau’s advice, “Do what you fear and the death of that fear is certain.” I figured that becoming a salesperson was the best way to fight my fear since rejection is commonplace in sales. In the beginning, though, I certainly was no sales superstar. Working solely on commission and with no income to show for, I filed for bankruptcy (one of two, if you recall). You might say that I became what my father programmed me to believe.

Slowly but surely, however, I manage to overcome my setbacks and eventually became the number one salesperson in Canada for a large, multinational insurance company. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, the point I’m trying to make is that becoming purposeful won’t make you an overnight success let alone guarantee it. It takes time. Jim Rohn said, “Part of success is preparation on purpose.” Alec MacKenzie said, “A bad decision is usually the result of a hasty one.” Ideally, you must take the time to learn why you should reach your goals and not how you can reach them.

Once you’ve defined your uppermost values, you will know which goals are important and why they are. This is what being conscious is all about and it’s not something you achieve at some point in the future. You will never be satisfied with your goals or with yourself after their achievement if you haven’t properly mastered your life right now.

Like it or not, the gratification you will receive out of any goal is directly proportional to the quality of your life, for how you focus on your priorities will affect your results as well as your appreciation of those results.

So, take the time to know or at least discover your values. In other words, your goals should not speed you up but slow you down. At first, it may seem hard to take the time you need to create a better plan for your life. Otherwise, the lack of planning will cause you unnecessary stress, frustration, and the possible abandonment of your goals.

You may also cut corners and get what you want, but as the Law of Balance says, “What goes around, comes around.” If you take a “bite” out of what’s important in your life, it will always come back and “bite” you somehow. Poet Nancye Sims, in The World Needs More Dreamers, wrote: “Dreamers are patient for they know a goal is only as worthy as the effort that’s required to achieve it.”

Don’t confuse eagerness with impatience because they are entirely different. It’s OK to be eager, but don’t get so impatient that you don’t take the time to prepare your goals let alone for your goals. Unsure, you might end up doing what may seem relevant when very often your actions will only be smoke-screens.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have to chop down a tree and only had six hours to do it, I would take four hours to sharpen my ax.” If you are impatient, it might take you more time if not more effort to get what you want. Being prepared may seem like a lot of work, but it really isn’t if you are genuinely eager.

In The Power of Desire, one of Jack Zufelt’s students wanted to get a black belt in Karate as did his mentor. The student asked what he must do and Jack replied that, although he can do it, he would need to practice an hour each day for four years. Disappointed, the student abandoned his goal, saying, “I just don’t have the patience.”

To this person, although it may seem as an important goal to him, getting the black belt was not a genuine core value. If it really were, no matter how much time or effort it would have taken he would have achieved his black belt by now. Additionally, he would have enjoyed the process.