Time Humiliates Me. I Cannot Push It. It Pushes Me.

Here’s a sales pitch that won’t convert leads:

“You’re going to do some really hard work, I mean really hard work, and it will probably lead you to an outcome that could change your life, but here’s the thing - it’s going to take months (maybe even years) possibly even a decade.”

Scroll your social media feed of paid advertisements and you’re not going to find this sales pitch anywhere. 

Instead everywhere you look you’re going to be bombarded with an ad message that tells you the opposite.

“Your best body in 30 days.”

“Couch to marathon in 30 days.”

“Write and publish your book in 30 days.”

(Insert outcome) in (really short timeline)

That is what sells.

Stop Consuming

Consumerism is changing the way we relate to the process of growth and transformation. Time-bound sales campaigns are rewiring our minds to believe meaningful things can be accomplished by just simply “locking in” for 30 days.

If something can be started and accomplished in 30 days it probably isn’t the fulfilling thing you think you want.

We’re getting brainwashed by this force of selling products and services. Real transformation, real growth, real mastery takes a really long time.

The internal work to rewire the way we think, work, respond to stress. Our actions, behaviors, and how we relate to our selves is not going to be accomplished in a short time frame. (This is why any 1-on-1 coaching engagement I enter into with an athlete, coach or leader is 18 months minimum).

Good things take time.

That’s the problem after all.

Time.

We want it now. No later than 30 days. 

“The sales copy said I could have it in 30 days!” We say.

You cannot speed up time

The ad campaigns promising total transformation in 30 days are strategic because our modern, western culture is obsessed with time.

Efficiency, time-saving, time-acceleration - whatever we need to do to speed up time and get what we want, we’ll do it.

It’s ironic how as we are obsessed with time, we rarely use time well. We don’t value time. We just want what we want. When we’re going through something unpleasant, there’s nothing more we want than to speed up time. 

If you’re between jobs - you want to speed up time (And return to the important job)

If you’re in the spring of your senior year - you want to speed up time (And graduate)

If you’re engaged - you want to speed up time (And get married)

If you’re in the minor leagues - you want to speed up time (And make it to the big leagues)

If you’re the mid-manager - you want to speed up time (And become the big manager)

If you’re the assistant coach - you want to speed up time (And become the head coach)

The Japanese Christian theologian, Kosuke Koyama had this to say about time.

“When I think about time, I have no other choice but to be humble. Time humiliates me. I cannot push it. Time pushes me.”

We don’t control the time. But we can control our direction

The Beauty of the Scatter Plot

One of the most beautiful images is a well organized scatter plot chart. Why do I say that?

It’s beautiful because it shows positive or negative correlation. 

It shows the trend.

It shows whether or not things heading in the right direction.

If we tracked our behaviors, we would see on the chart if our attention and intention are matching up.

Imagine your life is a series of data points. For every day you pursued mastery in what you said you wanted, a data point is plotted on the chart.

How you handle emotions and what’s behind them. Holding your thoughts captive, subduing them to your rule instead of being ruled by them. Staring down hard things, walking right toward them even when we didn’t feel like it. Every day living with purpose - placing a plot on the chart. 

For every day we disengaged, ran from what we said we wanted. Stuffed the emotions instead of being agile with them. Let the thoughts run wild instead of taking them captive and subduing them in reality. Backed away from the hard things, because well, we just “don’t feel like it, today.” Every day we drift, a scatter plot is placed on the chart as well.

I think scatter plots are beautiful because they are messy. 

A scatter plot isn’t perfect. It’s not always up and to the right. 

So it is when we pursue true mastery. Some days we make progress. Other days we miss. 

Make progress. Miss. Get back at it.

Make progress for a week. Miss a week. Get back at it.

Where are you trending? 

True transformation needs a lot of data points. It needs slow, marginal progress. Deep work. 

It needs a person, humbled by time.

When we dishonor time we are wrapped in our own self-importance. When we want it and want it NOW. 

We think we’re the only humans who shouldn’t have to wait. 

Or work in the dark, in the monotony of mastery, day after day after day.

There’s no lasting transformation in the 30-day smash and grab.

We’re after the real thing.

The long game. 

Consistency > Intensity.

A purposeful, slow walk in the right direction. For as long as it takes. So as long as we’re heading in the right direction - what’s the hurry?

As Sahill Bloom says,

“It’s so much better to climb slowly up the right mountain than fast up the wrong mountain.”

What direction are you trending?

Stay The Course