PROPER TIMING & BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS & FAILURE

Rajendra Dhar
POLICE WATCH INDIA (Regd. NGO).

There’s an old saying that “timing is everything in life.” Many times our choices in life are considered either good or bad based on timing alone. From a simple joke to major life decisions, timing seems to impact our every move. Is timing truly the key to our destiny? Do we have any say in the matter? Or is timing just another tool to help us along life’s journey?

What Is Timing Anyway?
Timing is “the ability to select the precise moment for doing something for optimum effect.” It’s that special moment in time when everything seems to come together perfectly. Timing is what makes the difference between a good joke and a bad one. Tell a joke at the right time and it’s hilarious, tell it at the wrong time and it’s not funny at all.

Timing shows up in other areas of life, like cooking. Trying to make a soufflé can be very difficult. Why? It’s not so much about the ingredients, but the timing of the cooking. Take your soufflé out of the oven too soon or too late and it will collapse. If you’ve ever seen a soufflé come out of the oven and suddenly deflate, it’s a sad and disappointing thing. In many ways that represents our hopes and fears around timing in life.

Many life opportunities are based on timing. The timing of your choices in life can take you in different directions.

Also consider timing in sports, medicine and finance. Put a golf ball when you’re timing is off and it can miss the hole. What about health and medicine? Catch a devastating illness or condition early and it can be lifesaving. Diagnosed too late and the consequences can be dire. And what about financial decisions? How many times have you heard about investments and “timing the market?” If you bought Microsoft or Apple stock when it was first offered and held onto it, you’d be rich today.

Timing and Destiny
Is timing the key to our destiny? Sometimes is seems that way. How often have you said to yourself, “If only I did “x,” at that time, things would be different?”

There was a movie back in the early 1990’s called “Mr. Destiny” staring Jim Belushi. The story was based on an incident in the character’s life as a boy during a high school baseball game. In a crucial moment of timing he struck out and lost the game for the team. As an adult he constantly goes back to that memory, wondering what his life would’ve been like if he hit a winning home run. He learns that the timing of this one event changed his whole destiny. As the movie continues he lives the alternate destiny only to find it has challenges too. In the end it becomes a journey of self-discovery.

Just like the movie, timing of choices and actions can lead us on a particular path. We still have the freedom to make the choice. Whether the choice and the path are right or not is up to us to figure out. Like the movie character, we are all on a journey of self-discovery.

Timing as a Tool
Understanding that timing can impact our lives, we can learn to use it as a tool. Ultimately life decisions are up to us, but we can try to heed the signals that timing might be good or bad to pursue them.

Perhaps the best way to use timing as a tool is to develop your intuition. By listening to your gut instincts or still small voice, you can intuitively sense when timing may be appropriate for your actions. Your ability to pick up on little cues and signals will strengthen you and you will be more confident to say that the timing “feels right”.

The best lesson on what perfect timing can do can be learn’t from the engine of your car. If the timing of your car engine is perfect you car engine starts instantly, gives you optimum power from the engine, optimum fuel efficiency, optimum engine life & practically zero breakdowns etc.

If the timing of your car engine is not perfect there are starting problems, low engine power, higher fuel consumption, frequent breakdowns besides lesser engine life.

When the timing is set of the car engine one cog of the timing belt, this way or that way makes all the difference between the good and bad performance of the car engine.

The Importance of Time Management in Life
What is done is done. Nothing in history can be changed. The most we can do about anything that has already been done is to take counter measures to prevent the damage from spreading. However, there is one more effective way to stop the damage and that is to prevent it.

“Prevention is better than cure”. This quote is most often used in terms of disease and illness; however, this can also be done for future mistakes. Time management is a form of prevention, specifically cramming, low quality work, even fatigue prevention. Some say that the one thing that a busy person needs to manage is time.

Why is time management so important? Time is the most important commodity. Time never comes back. It never rewinds like videotape. Here are the most common reasons why time is so important:

Time cannot be stored
Everyone no matter how rich or poor spends time the same way, it doesn’t speed up for the rich and slow down for the poor. Time management is equal to wise usage of time. This may be the difference between fame and failure.

Time is rare
Yes, everybody has the same number of hours, but haven’t you noticed that people are complaining that they don’t have enough of it? There is just so little time and so much to do that people go out of focus. Time management means giving importance to priorities and nearer deadlines and these give you enough time for the crucial activities in life.

Time is needed for everything
Everything takes time; everything needs time to materialize. With time management, each task is given enough time to be finished. By giving a sliver of time for each of your goals and accounting for it wisely, you will be able to achieve them, plus make time for rest. Truth is, even little time produces work. If distributed wisely throughout the day or week, you would be surprised to how much you can accomplish.

Time management helps you finish more jobs with less effort
By allotting a certain amount of time for each activity, you do not have to worry about the next thing that you will do. With time management, you become more organized and the things you do become more habitual than panic-driven. By making it a habit, you become more productive. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”.

TIME MANAGEMENT IS INDEED A GEM. ONCE IT BECOMES A HABIT, IT WILL BE MORE BENEFICIAL THAN TIME-CONSUMING.