Someday I think I’ll _________.  Go ahead and fill in the blank.  Now answer a question for me.  How long have you been saying that?  If you are like most, there are things that you want to do and as soon as someday gets here, you will do them.

One of my mentors asked once; “Show me someday on the calendar.”  If you didn’t know this already, someday is not on the calendar.  So what is keeping you from finding your someday?

If whatever it is that filled in your blank is worth doing, it should be worth doing now.  If there is preparation that needs to be done in order to do it, when will you start?  More importantly, when will you decide that you are done “getting ready” and it’s time to start?  I think this is where many of us get stuck.  At some point in time, you need to quit getting ready and just start.

I think this is one of the biggest responsibilities there is when it comes to leadership.  In my book, Leadership by Invitation, that will be out later this spring, I look at four areas of leadership that we will find ourselves in most of the time.  Leading your self, leading at home, leading at work and leading in your community.  We will all find ourselves in these situations multiple times every day.  Every day we will have to make decisions and the timing of those decisions will make the difference between success and failure.

John Maxwell talks about The Law of Timing in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and gives these factors to use when we prepare for the timing of our actions:

Understanding – Are you clear on what the decision actually is and what will be involved in making that decision?  Is there more that you need to learn?  What is it?

Maturity – Do you have the correct motives in making this decision?  Maturity is typically the result of applying experience based knowledge into a strategic action that will produce an expected outcome.

Confidence – Do you believe that what you are about to do is the right decision? Are you willing to stand behind it even if someone else doesn’t or things don’t go quite as planned?

Decisiveness – Are you going to move forward regardless of the challenges that may come up.  Hesitation can kill any momentum that you might be building. Course corrections are alright, but direction needs to remain forward.

Experience – Everything that happens to us in life, good and bad, has the potential to teach us.  The key is to actually learn from these experiences.  Don’t waste opportunities to learn from your experiences.

Intuition – Make sure you have considered the things that you have not considered.  Awareness is huge when it comes to timing.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  If something doesn’t feel right, find out why.

Preparation – Have you done what is needed to set yourself up for success?  A solid plan before you start will produce great results.  When you have prepared for the decision – act on it!

Life is busy.  You have a full plate.  Your “someday” list grows daily.  I get it.  This is why this is so important to leadership.  The next time you use the word someday, challenge yourself to choose a day.  It might be tomorrow or two months from now but once you choose a day, you can start to follow the framework above and develop a plan to make someday today.

So if you have been on an extended stay on Someday Isle, it’s time to come back to reality.  There is nothing wrong with dreaming but if you want that dream to come true, you need a plan.

Martin Luther King Jr. said “The time is always right to do what is right.”  (Tweet This / Share on Facebook / Post to LinkedIn)

So my question for you today “Is the time right?”  and my challenge – Act on it!

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Barry Smith    1/20/14   photo by author   © Building What Matters 2014