Hi there! Welcome to the blog. If it’s your first time here, we invite you to poke through more of our posts (once you’re done reading this one, of course) and get your read on. Today, we’re talking about importance of things and how finding a way is a never-fail answer to most of life’s pressing questions. I’m hoping to make you think about a lot of things, so be sure and let me know if I succeeded. Ready? Gear up, put your thinking cap on, and get to reading.
Human beings are incredible. Not only is the human body amazing, but the way our brains work when we need to figure something out is also simply breathtaking. We can analyze scenarios, work them out to conclusion, drop back, and rework our process several times. Our bodies can heal, break, and accomplish astonishing tasks.
It’s this resilience that matters when push comes to shove, and I’ll explain what I mean by that in a moment. First, a short story.
When I was in college, I spent a fair amount of time chatting with my professors. One of them was an older gentleman who had several nuggets of wisdom he liked to pass out to anyone who’d listen. I’m now going to share a couple with you, and I’ll explain exactly what he explained when he said them to me. It’s the last of these that pertain to the title of this article, and the information within, but I figure, while I’m here, why not share a little extra wisdom?
First Nugget of Wisdom
“If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.”
What he meant by this was for you to always, always plan to finish/be early and to plan for things that might happen. Then, if something in life happened, and you were strapped for a day, you’re still early. I took this to heart, and my work was never on time again. I also never arrived late to anything again. I was always fifteen minutes early (at least). This will come back into play when we get to the last item.
Second Nugget of Wisdom
“You’ll always sacrifice one of three things: Time, Money, or Quality. There’s no way around this.”
What this means is that if you want something done quickly and in a quality manner, you’ll pay more. If you want something done quickly and don’t want to pay more, you’ll lose quality. If you want quality and don’t want to pay more, you’ll have to wait a longer time. I suppose you kind of get the drift. He wasn’t wrong. Quality things cost more unless you’re willing to wait longer. You always sacrifice something.
Third (and Final) Nugget of Wisdom
“If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way; if it’s not, you’ll find an excuse.”
What this means, and is the topic of the entire article, is that if something matters to you, you’ll make it happen no matter what.
I took that to heart, and I started to notice that other people gave a lot of excuses. They were late because of traffic, they couldn’t finish something because of life, or they had something come up that caused them to be unable to do whatever it is they said they’d do.
People aren’t late when they plan to be early. People finish projects when they plan to finish early. People who have zero dollars find a way to pay for that medical treatment their child needs to live. People perform amazing feats when someone they love is in danger.
I hear the objections to this starting already, but I’ve seen it, experienced it, and lived with it. If something is important to them, they’ll find a way to make it happen. Just sit and think about it, and you’ll realize I’m right.
You have a project due that you planned to finish two weeks ahead of time. Suddenly, you take a bad fall and end up in the hospital. Your client is one who will fire you if you don’t get the material to them, and that job supports your family. Do you start making excuses and hope they have sympathy, or do you find someone else to help or finish for you (even if you have to pay them)? If it’s important to you that you keep the job, you’ll find a way to get that project turned in before the due date.
You’re meeting a friend for lunch. They always arrive at least five minutes early. You always tend to arrive a few minutes late. Simply put, you don’t care if they’re standing around, waiting on you. Their time isn’t your priority. It doesn’t matter. So, you’re late.
This is what I mean, and in every scenario, where you might think there’s a good excuse for missing something, failing to complete a project on time, or being late, really sit and think about it for more than a minute, as though it’s important to you, and I’ll bet you think of a way.
This is true in life, work, and relationships.
Now, here’s where it gets hairy. Stop and think about all the excuses you’ve heard from other people. Did that thing matter to you? Did it truly matter to them?
I hope you got some lovely nuggets of thought wisdom from this article. Like I said in the opening paragraph, stick around and read a few others. We promise you won’t be disappointed. Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you next time!
Contributor
