Everything that a man has ever created was built on the basis of three elements: time, knowledge, sweat. We learn to form ideas and obtain tools to turn into a real tangible thing, aka knowledge. Then, we put in effort to build it, aka sweat. There are many people preaching about importance of knowledge and sweat. But here comes the tricky factor, time.
"Time is precious, so use it well"
No, that's not what I'm trying to establish in this post. Because it's so vague. It doesn't give us a tangible action plan to apply. Rather, the message that I would like to convey is "just like every item has a price tag, every creation has a time tag"
Yes, just as a merchant can price in any way he or she likes to price an item, we can also decide how much time we are going to dedicate in the creation. But as every product has a set price, every men-made creation has a set time to complete. In other words, we might have the luxury of deciding a deadline for completion, but we must stick to it no matter what.
That leads us to the core message of today's topic; ship and deliver, no matter what. Use the knowledge and sweat to create but it you must ensure it gets done under certain period that you've previously set.
It sounds simple and it's not an idea we've never heard of. But I guarantee you that most people don't apply it or rather are obscured by two obstacles: fear and procrastination.
Most of creation whether it's an project, art piece, or publishing, get delayed. The most common reason for the postponement is perfection. However, it's not the real reason. We are lying to ourselves that we are striving for perfection and we just need more time to complete it.
This is just full of crap. Because at the back of our mind, we all know that there is no such thing as perfection. The real reason for the delay is fear.
This fear of exposure.
The fear of coming short with regards to the result that we hoped for. The fear of being unaccepted. The very fear of disappointment because we fail to meet the initial expectation.
We are not delaying to achieve perfection.
We are procrastinating because of fear.
Nothing matters if it stays incomplete and unshipped. There are so many things to do but very little time. So once you set a time, just ship it accordingly.
Before I wrap up, let me illustrate this with a real life example. I've decided a couple weeks ago to post on steemit at least five times a week. I came to this conclusion after long period of seeking what's going to give me true fulfillment. I have two businesses that I run and the work load keeps me occupied 20 hours a day. The business is running, I'm making money, but there was something off, leaving me an empty space inside of me. I found out that I was seeking for meaning of my existence, "what can I offer to this world?" And delivering message across my small audience to make small impact became my goal.
Every morning, I've set a time to write and post on steemit. I produce and I ship. But everyday I have fear of exposure, being evaluated by my audience of the worthiness of my content. The best feature in platforms like steemit and reddit is that the quality of your post is instantly evaluated, the clear indicator called upvotes. It gives me the resistance every time I'm trying to write.
"What if I'm not adding any value through my content production. What if I'm just merely wasting my time. I only sleep 3~4 hours a day, shut up and just work on the businesses that are making money right now."
The same whisper that goes off like an alarm every f*cking morning.
Today, I woke up late and I have a plane to catch. I'm left with less than two hours to post something on steemit. I usually spend four hours to organize an idea and write. But today I'm left with half the time. So, my fear kicks in even harder, "Forget it. Your content is going to be so sh*tty, you'll be really wasting big time. Work on your client's project."
Again, fear of exposure, judgment.
However, I didn't give in. And I flipped what was alluring me to skip a day. The core message of today's post. There's a time tag attached to my production and it's time to create and deliver just like every other day.
Thus, I shipped.
On to the next one.
