It was a beautiful September night and the sounds of crickets ricocheted through the trees with soft winds rustling the leaves. My wife and I sat on the sofa with the aroma of incense and the soft glow of votive candles. This was our romantic night of brainstorming where we put our minds together to think creatively!

“This is the perfect idea!” I said while we developed product and service ideas. “This will be a good one too” I said as the ideas were really beginning to flow.

With a pen in hand, I wrote down each specific idea that we developed. Eventually, the page was filled with an assortment of creative projects and random phrases of inspiration. This was a very energetic brainstorming session and, after generating so many different ideas, I was shocked at the variety of ideas we came up with.

But what is an idea without action?

Of course none of the ideas we brainstormed will manifest without work. The page I wrote on was filled with great ideas but without taking the steps to bring them to life the entire list can easily transform from a nursery to a cemetery.  In other words, action gives birth to our ideas; inaction brings death to our ideas.  Activity is vital. And as we came up with ideas we made sure to remind ourselves of this fact.

There’s a deeper concern than just action.

But do you know the evil culprit that tiptoes under the guise of activity? It can sneak into any of the ideas you undertake. It is so sneaky that it can sneak into well-intentioned and even well-planned activity. In fact, it thrives on activity. Simply put, it breaks in the moment you decide to… wait.
And I don’t mean “wait” as it is used in the typical sense of inactivity where a person is on standby for the next step in a sequence of events. Instead, I am referring to when a person is engaged in activity, even vigorous activity. I’ve found that waiting, as I define it, can be detrimental to any of the ideas my wife and I are taking action on. Here is what wait really means…

Wasted Invaluable Time (WA.I.T)

In this sense, to wait does not mean that you are being inactive. It means that you may be taking action all the while. Therefore, you can actually be busy and be… waiting. You can have a full schedule lined up for yourself and still be… waiting. You may be thinking, how is that possible? It doesn’t make sense? If I’m taking action then I’m not waiting at all!

Let me explain: whenever you take action steps that are contrary to the action steps you need to be doing… you are waiting. We often fill our agendas with activities that make us feel like we’re accomplishing our goals but they actually are not. They are illusory steps that keep our schedules occupied in order to dodge the real action steps we need to be doing. We wait by creating a mirage of activity that is meaningless.

How I Waited

As a visual artist, I’ve had quite a few years experience drawing. All of my art was merely for my own private viewing and not intended for marketing. I just wasn’t interested in marketing my work. But with my mother, brother, uncle and aunt’s encouragement I decided to do some marketing. I figured here’s an opportunity; why not give it a shot?

So I pulled the trigger and started my business selling my motivational artworks. Ready, fire, aim was my approach! With this approach, I was vending and selling my art but I lacked a plan. My efforts lacked niche-market specificity and it was solely premised on face-to-face transactions. It also did not harness the leverage of other people’s time, other people’s money, or available technology. I was setting myself up for a setback! The effort to sell my artwork became very costly and laborious. I decided I needed to make some changes if I wanted to continue so I started brainstorming. I came up with two great ideas:

1. Research niche-markets for the product
2. Automate the sales process so that it does not require my presence

In a few days, I compiled a long list of potential customers in the niche-market. Before long, I also found a way to automate the sales process. I’ve got the niche-market and I have an automated system that can get them the products. Excellent! Now I’ve just got to contact the list of potential customers and coordinate.

But, hold on… wait.

Even though I had a sufficient list of potential customers, I told myself that I needed to do more research to find more customers before contacting any of them. I also figured it might be a good idea to create more products just in case the customers want more products than I had to offer. So I got busy doing more research and creating more products… waiting. Wasted invaluable time (wait) continued passing by as I preoccupied myself with useless activity.

Although it may appear that additional market research and product generation were necessary, they were not. They were illusory steps that kept my schedule fully occupied in order to dodge the real action steps I needed to take. What I really needed to be doing was calling the list of customers I already had, not researching more as a prerequisite for contacting any. What I really needed to be doing was marketing the products I already had, not creating more products as its prerequisite. These actions were contrary to what I needed to be doing. I was waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

What were the consequences of this?

There are three basic consequences to waiting:

1. Delayed Goals
2. Frustration
3. Quitting

My goal of contacting my niche-market and truly utilizing the automated system were pushed further back. For each day I decided to do additional research and product generation rather than active marketing, I delayed my goal. As the goal moved further away, the results I wanted traveled further with it. I started getting frustrated with my efforts and more exhausted chasing after them. Despite running as hard as I could to reach the goal it never seemed to get closer. The problem was that I was running hard at wasting invaluable time (waiting) with meaningless tasks. Eventually I began losing enthusiasm and doubted my efforts. My motivation decreased, activity slowed, and I eventually quit. Waiting ruined my business.

Why do we wait?

The real reason we waste invaluable time is because of fear. We’re scared of taking action and doing the things we know we need to do. So we create a façade of activity that makes it seem like we’re being proactive when we’re just being cowards. That’s what happened to me. I was being a coward. I hid in the comfort of being busy because I was scared to face potential rejection, scared to be uncomfortable, and paralyzed with fear.

Waiting is a losing game! Get down to business and take deliberate action on the steps that need to get done. Activity is not an end in itself. We need to stop being busy with our goals and start being productive with them.

3 Action Steps to Stop Waiting

1.  Set milestones for yourself. World renowned business philosopher Jim Rohn says that we should make “measurable progress in reasonable time”. Don’t give yourself one year to do something that should take a week! Break your larger goal into smaller steps. Write those smaller steps on calendar dates leading up to the larger goal’s completion and stick to it.

2.  Use Parkinson’s Law to your advantage. Compress time frames and put the pressure on. Set shorter timeframes to reach each milestone. If you give yourself less time to get it done chances are you will complete it in less time also. Test the possible.

3.  Reward yourself. Positive reinforcement is critical. Give yourself healthy incentives for completing your milestones. After completing your milestone, I guarantee you will be excited, so go do something else that makes you smile!

What are you wasting invaluable time with? Do you have any methods that have helped you stop waiting?