I’ve introduced the distinction “not ready, getting ready, ready” in another article.
If and when you look at your life through that distinction (remember, a distinction is like a hole you punched in the wall to look at your world anew, to see things differently) you are going to see a lot of things differently.
Without this distinction, life is a lot of yes/no, and there is a lot of forcing.
As if you had to be ready for anything and everything at all times.
But, truth be told, you aren’t. I am not either.
This distinction doesn’t give you ACCESS to getting things done, other than forcing… right after you made yourself wrong for doing life the way you do life.
So let me illustrate, a little bit, this distinction, in my life.
If you looked at my life, it seems that I procrastinate a lot.
I start to watch an instruction video… turn it off in the middle, and start doing something else.
Looks like I am jumping from thing to thing, I am avoiding doing what I am supposed to do.
This is how, what I do, looks to you, when you look at me, through ordinary eyes.
The way teachers, your mother, gurus teach you: do what you need to do, right now. Massive action!
But doing anything, unless you are ready, is forcing.
I stop the video until I am ready to get more…
I am not forcing it down my throat.
The same is with the 67 steps. I will not do anything, unless I am ready.
Now, what is the difference between getting ready and procrastination?
Getting ready is active. I am not reacting to “I have to, or I should.” I am actively getting ready…
How do I know if I am ready? I put my big toe into the water… and FEEL it.
I feel what is missing to get ready. I feel if I can get ready.
I ask questions: “what preparation do I need to do to get ready to actually do the thing? What action do I need to take before this will make sense and I will be able to do it?” And then I do those… Doing the preparation is part of getting ready. Sometimes it is thinking, sometimes it is doing… sometimes it is just jotting down a few words… like Werner Erhard.
You see, context is decisive. If I didn’t have the “getting ready” distinction, I would think I am procrastinating. And then I would feel bad about myself. I would not ask questions, because they would be “out of context”… or part of forcing.
By the way: winners are NOT dutiful. Dutiful is forcing. Winners, like Abraham Lincoln, who seems to be procrastinating while he is sharpening his axe. It is getting ready… actively.
Now, truth be told, there are a few activities I don’t want to do, and I will never be ready, and you will have to force me, or a circumstance will have to force me, because I am not willing to do it.
It would be best to hire help to get that done… because I’ll only do it if you put a gun to my head… lol.
But other than those few activities, I take myself through the process of getting ready. I am slow and steady. I will get it done. You can’t hurry brilliance… lol.
Seriously, if we all honored people’s right, including ourselves, to be not ready… we would make less hasty moves.
Commit to a relationship prematurely. Buying expensive programs… prematurely. Enrolling in a course… prematurely.
Deciding on a business, profession, direction… prematurely.
And then you are locked in… and locked out.
You see, when the process is natural and you choose when you are ready, the experience is not being locked in, the experience is being on the right path… doing the right thing… very nurturing.
Of course, choosing is the first most crucial step. And then come the many more steps, and you have to be ready for all of them… but then you’ll be a lot more certain that those steps are taking you in the right direction.
And that makes all the difference.
PS: the same capacity bundle I recommended before: allowing and seeing the consequences of your action makes a huge difference in being able to get ready, instead of procrastinating forever.
