Timing is Everything

This is the first blog post I have written that has almost no joking around in it. It may have been something I ate, and I'm sure I'll be back to my normal, snarky self by next week. In the meantime, know that any and all serious posts on this blog will be marked by Serious Cat, so that my humor-loving readers know to skim or skip.





Almost 800 years ago in China, a man named Dogen arrived from Japan. He had made what was then a difficult and dangerous journey to study the Ch'an school of Buddhism, and to find the answer to a question that had haunted him for most of his life. He searched in the foreign land for enlightenment and the answer to his question for over two years, until he met an old master named Rujing. Dogen studied under Rujing for some time. One day in the meditation hall, among many other monks, Dogen heard his teacher say "Let body and mind fall away." Upon hearing this, Dogen achieved the enlightenment he had traveled to China to achieve. No one else in the room did. They were all in the same place, doing the same thing, hearing the same words. Why did only one of them achieve enlightenment?

As humans, we sometimes want everything to work with one model. We want there to be one answer to life. When we're young, we search frantically, in religion, in philosophy, in science. We ask our parents and they don't know what the answer is. Sometimes when we grow up, we forget about our question in the hubbub of daily life. Then, when we're old, we wrack our brains trying to figure out what we missed in all the time we were here. Sometimes we come up with an answer, and we tell our children and grandchildren, because if WE knew that when we were young, we would have been unstoppable.

But then, something remarkable happens. No one cares. No one cares that this answer took 60, 70, 80 years to come up with. No one cares that this secret can send them to amazing success. The young person we used to be, the one still searching for the answer, hears it and brushes it off, because that CAN'T be the answer. He keeps searching. The busy adult has no time to listen, let alone understand.

So what happened? The timing is off. The young person needs the answer to his question, and he's in a big question/big answer headspace. Maybe his answer for now is that there is no answer, and that frees him up to live his life. Maybe our busy grown up just needs to have someone put a hand on his shoulder and remind him to breathe. Those aren't necessarily the answers to everyone in those situations, but maybe they are for them.

I truly believe that each one of us has something that we need to hear, or something that we need to do, that will get us closer to being the person that we want to be. Maybe it's something brand new and exciting, but maybe it's something that we've heard before, but we weren't ready for. For years, I needed to hear someone tell me that consistency is more important than intensity. I was always rushing after one thing for a few months, and then dropping it and moving on to the next. No one told me directly, or so I thought, so I had to figure it out for myself. When I came up with the saying, I immediately liked it, because it not only addressed some of the issues I was having, but it also rhymed. The words just came to me one day as I was looking at some favorite quotes of mine (have I mentioned that I'm a quote fanatic?) and came upon Aristotle's "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

How many times had I read those words without really understanding them? I don't know, but a lot. I was really stunned that the answer was but one between-the-line reading away the whole time. But maybe that was the first time I was really ready for it. Maybe it washed over me all of the times I'd read that very quote before because I hadn't had enough trial and error yet. Which makes me wonder: if I wasn't such an avid quote collector and reader, how long would it have taken before I just happened to come upon that quote, or another that said something close? It also makes me wonder if I could have been ready for it earlier had someone brought it to my attention that that was something that I needed. From this experience, I realized two things - one that I was already doing, and one that I needed to do.

Thing one - Being a quote fanatic is a Good Thing. It keeps you on the lookout for tidbits that can help you be a better, cooler, more successful version of yourself when you're ready for them. It makes you remind yourself of the things that are important to you. It helps you catch yourself when you go off track, or even when you overcorrect a little. However, I give you two caveats. First, one man's trash is another man's treasure (and vice versa). Only save quotes that are helpful and profound to you. Just because someone else thinks that it's worth saving to wikiquote doesn't necessarily mean it makes your quote journal. And second, quote study will never take the place of reading real books, and of course, real success blogs. Also, in the spirit of both caveats, look for quotes in places other than lists of quotes. If you find something profound in a magazine article, write it down on your list of quotes.

Thing two - I need a mentor. I have heroes of course, and two or three people who are partial mentors, but I think it would help me a lot if I had someone who could help me with information timing. There's so much knowledge in the world, and with the internet, almost all of it is available within a few seconds. I really wish I had someone who was well versed in the skill of the century, and could help me separate the needles from the chaff, as the saying goes. I may continue the mentor discussion, and hopefully progress, in a future blog post. In the meantime, I would encourage you to seek out the same.

The most important aspect of both things is timing. Quote study is like looking at a list of time bombs. What may help you one day, you might grow out of. And, of course, what you aren't ready for one day, may be exactly what you need the next. A good mentor is only valuable because of timing. We all have vast information at our fingertips, but if someone can tell you what you need to do next, to get you to where you want to be, then that's something hugely valuable. Timing is everything. Timing is why Dogen was the only person to realize something amazing when his teacher said to let body and mind fall away in a room full of meditating monks. Timing is why I didn't get that consistency is more important than intensity until I was ready for it. What are YOU waiting for? Find it, and move on to the next big thing.

Thanks for sticking with me through this very unfunny post. Until next time, I wish you the best in all.



Note: Dogen later returned to Japan and founded the Soto school of Zen (Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of Ch'an). The Soto school is the largest branch of Zen in Japan, and if you've ever heard of or studied Zen, it is due in no small part to our boy Dogen.