To be successful in life you must strike a delicate balance between pushing forward and tarrying. Both are valuable approaches; the timing of their application, however, is everything.
A common mistake in living occurs when an evolving situation is mistakenly judged as bad when it simply has not yet come to fruition. A friend and business associate of mine discovered this week that one stubbornly stuck component of a large project she has been working on started to move at the very moment that other resources became available for its completion.
Fortunately for her she didn’t judge, fret or struggle with the blockage; she noted it, but moved on to handle the areas which were inclined to forward movement. When the shift finally occurred and the aperture made itself apparent, she was armed and ready to handle it, especially since she hadn’t wasted time, energy or money trying to move something that wasn’t ready to move.
If you find yourself banging your head against the wall about something, you might benefit from a shift in attention to those elements in your world which are ripe for handling. Learning to discern between that which is ripe and that which is still evolving is one of the most important skills you can master as a parent, educator or business person.
It’s not so much a matter of “Type A” people learning to be more patient or the rest of us learning to be more assertive as it is relaxing in yourself so that you can become more sensitive to the creative impulses which undulate through the world around you.
All creation occurs in cycles and there is an ideal window of time during which the least amount of input is required to achieve the desired result. This timing is not predetermined, neither is it fated, but it manifests at a time when the factors within your control line up with the factors beyond your control. If’ you’re alert and poised to seize the moment, you will recognize this moment and be in position to act appropriately.
Gregory Hake 
I really believe that being sensitive to timing like this is one of the most imporant skills that can be learned, period. It doesn’t matter how good you are at other things, if you are constantly bumbling and trying to push things through at the wrong time, you are going to always be subpar compared to your potential.
I think that the ticket to learning this is to just be still in your heart. This is not the same as being lazy or slothful, because you are prepared to move on a dime, but how can you hear well enough to be sensitive when you are living in a world of ceaceless turbulence?
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Thank you for the clear and concise explanation of this common phenomenon. I’ve had the experience of trying real hard or fighting the season and the pleasure of planting and harvesting at the optimum time. The “I like or don’t like” as my initial greeting to change was in my estimation the beginning of most of my futile endeavors. Learning to, in some way, count it all as process has made it easier to listen and observe, to take into account the timetable of the Universe.
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There various examples that come to mind after reading your post. One that comes to mind is the two member beach volleyball team that had never lost a set until this week. In watching them I see that at various times they would make the softest of touches as you say the least amount of input required to achieve the desired result. Makes me think that as we are carrying on with our lives there may be times when we cannot get to the ball but as we stay in the game not fretting about what is not working and stay with an interest to be generative in our living things do work out in time.
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Great title and great point!
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Such a good summary of a vital sensitivity. Thanks Gregg!
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This is a phenomenol principle, one that brings so much balance to your life. Being able to discern proper action in context is simply one of the finer arts of living. How many things are neutered in this world by acting impulsively or lethargically? I can only speak from personal experience and observation! We make comedy shows out of this very tendency, but when the real stakes come high as they are in everybody’s life, it becomes no laughing matter.
Viewing the landscape of your life as a garden with various trees each at different stages of maturity helps you realize which fruit are green, ripe or rotting. Some fruit you want to rot no question and you wouldn’t want to eat, things perhaps planted under error, but for the other two a good gardener will take extra care, leaving one more or less alone while supplying the basics and then harvesting the plump ones. All in due time!
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Very useful points!
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