How is Timing Important in Life?
We live in a world beaming with ideas. Ideas are nothing but thoughts. People are always thinking round the clock. So, what is that 1 ingredient, when used properly, makes your thought, your idea stand out? What is that one factor that exposes your idea to the whole world, and makes you popular? What is that 1 factor, which probably is more valuable and important than Time itself?
That ingredient, that invaluable factor is none other than the Timing. To be more specific, the right timing. In simple terms, timing is the process of executing an idea or thought at the right moment. It is the execution of the idea, the action, at the right moment. What the ‘right moment’ is, would depend on various factors, internal and external.
Let us consider a common example where the ‘right timing’ jargon is extensively used: Cricket. Here timing refers to the moment the batsman chooses to hit the ball that he is facing.
As mentioned earlier, you can observe roles played by the internal and external factor as follows:
Internal – batsman form, mindset, energy level, hand-eye coordination, confidence, and so on. External – ball swing, wind direction, pitch condition, ball speed, and so on.
In this case, when the timing is perfect or near-perfect, the ball connects well with the bat and at the angle intended by the batsman, and therefore reaches where the batsman wanted it to, in most cases a boundary.
In the same way, all actionable ideas require the right timing, to make it successful at what it was meant for. The key is to align our actionable ideas with the possible internal and external factors, to minimize the stress and friction caused by the process.
For every action, there are broadly 4 main factors to be considered: What, Why, Where, and When. These are often called the 4 Ws.
To make things a bit more clear, consider another example: the Cheetah
What: the object doing the action under consideration
Why: the reason behind the action
Where: the place of occurrence of the action
When: the time of the execution of the action – the timing.
The cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet with a top speed of 120Kmph (almost 40% faster than a top speeding train). However, it can sustain its top speed only for about 20 seconds. This is due to its stamina issues. A top speed duration of more than 20-30 seconds could prove lethal to a Cheetah.
What a shame to have such an awesome superpower, but to have an equally dragging drawback. So, while hunting, the Cheetah has to follow the right timing to accelerate. It has to wait for its moment and accelerate to its top speed at the right time, to ensure a successful hunt. Any mistake in the right timing will leave the Cheetah foodless and hungry till its next possible prey to be visible.
It is the same with us, humans, too. We must ensure our execution follows the right timing as much a possible, to be successful in achieving the intended goal. Having cemented what timing is, we need to understand another important concept: Prioritising
We live in a world with limited time and energy. In such a situation, we have to prioritize all our ideas or thoughts and execute them based on the order. That way, we could try to time all our ideas correctly. This is easier said than done. Almost 99% of the people suffer from poor timing at one point in their lives. But, properly prioritizing the ideas could be a lot more helpful in the long run.
Assets, Obstacles, and Neutral
While discussing the right timing, the importance of external and internal factors needs to be highlighted further than discussed earlier. These could also be referred to as hidden forces of the environment (external and internal together).
These factors could be classified into the following: Assets, Obstacles, and Neutral
Assets: these are the environmental factors that help in reaching the right timing organically.
Obstacles: as the name suggests, these are the environmental factors that create friction between your execution and its right timing.
Neutrals: these are the environmental factors that do not impact the timing in any sense. These could turn into either assets or obstacles in a later stage.
One has to take these 3 points into consideration:
Let us go back to our Cricket example.
• Make sure the assets are handled positively so that they remain strongly in favor.
• Make sure the obstacles do not get strong enough to overpower the effect of the assets
• Make sure the neutrals either stay that way or do not become obstacles at a later stage.
Assets: the batsman form, batsman hand-eye coordination, batsman stance, batsman confidence, and so on.
Obstacles: ball speed, ball swing, batsman foot movement, and so on.
Neutral: pitch type, weather, wind direction, and so on.
Assets: the batsman form, batsman hand-eye coordination, batsman stance, batsman confidence, and so on.
Obstacles: ball speed, ball swing, batsman foot movement, and so on.
Neutral: pitch type, weather, wind direction, and so on.
Neither idea nor timing can give a good result by standing alone. They are always co-dependant.
There are 4 possibilities for this relation, and each of them results in either a successful or unsuccessful desired end result. Let us analyze these with the same Cricket example, from the batsman’s point of view. The desired results for the batsman are a boundary or a run.
Good Idea – Bad Timing
In this case, though the idea is top-notch, the execution timing is poor and so the desired end result would not be achieved successfully.
The bowler balls a Yorker, which is the best ball in his armory. The best option for the batsman is to defend it at the right timing. Since the timing is bad, he is either early or late to defend the ball, hence he is clean bowled. The batsman’s desired result would not be achieved.
Bad Idea – Good Timing
In this case, though the timing is right on point, the idea in use is poor. Even though the desired result would not be achieved, this case has a small probability of success. Since in the 4Ws, the ’When’ overpowers others, in this case, there is a decent probability.
The bowler balls a Yorker. The correct shot is to defend. But, the batsman decides to sweep, which is a bad idea. Even though he times the shot to perfection, there is a high probability that the ball takes a top edge and goes for a catch to a fielder. So, the desired result would not be achieved.
Bad Idea – Bad Timing
In this case, both the idea and the timing are poor. Obviously, the desired result would not be achieved.
The bowler balls a Yorker. The batsman goes for an early pull shot, thereby missing both the correct shot selection and the right timing. So, the desired result would not be achieved.
Good Idea – Good Timing
In this case, both the idea and the timing are good. Obviously, the desired result is achieved.
The bowler balls a Yorker. The batsman defends the ball at the right time when the ball pitches close to his heels. He is then able to take a single. So, the desired result would be achieved.
How to develop the right timing sense?
Now that we understand what the right timing is, let’s ponder on how to sense and achieve the right timing for the execution of our ideas. It is not entirely possible to master the art of right timing, however, practicing to achieve that would be useful.
The following could be a few ways to sense the right timing for the ideas.
Self-Awareness
Every individual has his/her own thought process and style of execution. So, it is up to the individual to analyze their strentghs and weakness and then make an informed decision regarding the timing to execute an idea.
The tried and tested SWOT analysis method could be useful in that scenario.
After self-analyzing, one could try matching his/her strengths with environmental factors to zero in on the right timing.
Environment/Surrounding Awareness
Awareness about what is happening around us could also help in zeroing in on the right timing to execute an idea. More often than not, the external factors pose great friction to the idea execution. Environmental awareness provides us with the required vigilance to maneuver obstacles if any.
Observation
This is interlinked with the above two points. The keen observation could help weed out possible obstacles (both internal and external). Honing this skill alone could improve the sense of timing for an individual.
In The End…
Now that we have an idea as to what is the concept of right timing and why it is so important, we could agree to the fact that right timing is probably more important than time itself.
Can’t we?
Let me know what you think.
