Search for discussions on “Timing” in business and you’ll find tens of thousands of articles about timing the market, about how timing is critically important to a product or brand’s success. In certain cases, that’s true. Take Irene Blok’s fashionable facemarks, called Face Blok, which landed on Shark Tank. The sharks thought the masks “freaky” and also pointed out that a simple cotton face mask could only be considered a “novelty.” And Kevin O’Leary’s comment will now go down in face mask history, “You need a new epidemic to get that kind of hit profile again.”
I wish the REST of us didn’t have to eat THOSE words day in and day out. lol…
But this sort of timing isn’t what I hear women entrepreneurs discussing most often. They’re not “timing the market,” lol… When a woman entrepreneur discusses TIMING, they’re MORE OFTEN discussing their own life and the things that are going on with them personally.
I’ll use MY OWN LIFE as an example. Right now is a crazy time for me. CURRENTLY, I’m planning my daughter’s wedding which is less than 2 months away. I have a vacation planned the same month as the wedding. I have a deadline creeping up on me from my publisher. I have RECENTLY hired my daughter (same one that is getting married) and am training her on all things online. I am constantly re-assessing a live event I’ve already rescheduled once and may STILL not be able to have. I have two kids in entirely new learning environments due to COVID, and a husband transitioning to a fully home-based teaching opportunity…. plus, you know… all the “regular stuff.” The regular BUSINESS stuff, the regular PERSONAL stuff, the regular FAMILY stuff.
Many would consider this “bad timing” for — you know — taking on anything new. But that sort of thinking has cost me way too much already. THIS is how I used to feel earlier in my business, which is why I have written 43 CAUTIONARY articles about the issue of “timing” for women entrepreneurs.
I used to feel my life getting “busy,”
I used to look ahead at what was coming my way as a wife, mom or woman and I would then
— in a move I considered WISE —
ADJUST my goals.
I would pull back, withdraw, push pause.
I would feel anxiety or uncertainty creeping up and I would STOP.
I would tell mentors that it wasn’t the right time for me, and I would tell them the TRUTH about all that was going on in my personal life. I would decide not to attend that event, I would decline opportunities to LEAP forward in my business. I would press pause on that goal. You know, timing. Bad timing. Couldn’t be WORSE timing, actually.
But here is the thing about THIS WAY of thinking about timing: When you consider “timing” as a reason not to KEEP GOING DELIBERATELY towards your goals, choosing instead a goal of “coasting” or maintaining your current reality —- you begin playing not to lose.
You start to REPLACE the BIG dreams and goals with goals of not losing too much, with goals of “coasting,” you know, just for now.
And here is the danger of this thinking:
��If I am pursuing BIG goals and fail to reach them, the goals themselves have powerfully moved me forward. My PURSUIT of those goals will keep me growing, keep me moving, keep me evolving.
But if I push pause on THOSE goals (the real goals, the ones that light my soul on fire in all the best of ways!) and replace them with the goal of “getting thru” this season, with goals of “coasting,” I risk not EVEN reaching THAT goal. Losing ground, going backwards, feeling even MORE discouraged about the possibility of EVER going all in.
I know this possibility, because I have lived this reality. I have felt the pain, shame and SUCH frustration with myself. Soon I realized as a working mom that EVERY season was busy, EVERY season had unforeseen challenges, EVERY season had some TRUE and BUILT IN “reason” that now was “bad timing.”
EVENTUALLY, I realized that NOW was all the timing I had. EVENTUALLY I realized that EVERY business I admired had PUSHED through these seasons. EVENTUALLY I realized that EVERY success story I was emulating had their own “bad timing” seasons during which they kept their foot on the gas, EVEN when EVERY fiber of their humanity urged them to coast.
This is when I made my “bare minimum” rule, which was implemented on certain DAYS, but was NEVER AGAIN going to be “the plan.”
There are still
and will always be
certain days when I feel like “I got nothin!”
certain days when I feel like I NEED to coast.
I HONOR these days.
And I look at my “bare minimum” list.
This is a VERY short list that STILL moves my business forward, but requires the ‘bare minimum’ of me.
And I do that.
BUT I do this for a DAY,
maybe a FEW days,
but NEVER as a “plan” for a busy season. 
Because busy seasons are part of it,
and one quickly moves into the next.
I’ve learned to SURF rather than dive under each wave,
and the PERSPECTIVE shift this gave is so critical it’s hard to put into words.
It all started with my REFUSAL to make “coasting” the goal, with my REJECTION of “timing” as a thing, with my EMBRACING of NOW as the only timing ANY of us ever have.
So, if you are ALL in,
I invite you to do the same.
DOUBLE down on your goals,
set your “bare minimum” list
and use it on THOSE days,
but do NOT press pause,
do NOT lose sight of the goals that INSPIRE you,
do NOT look for “perfect timing.”
The only perfect timing
is right now.
What will you do with it? Message me YOUR affirmation, YOUR commitment, YOUR decision. And let me hold you accountable.
Further reading from 2012, about how “timing” kept my business MEDIOCRE for far too long: https://www.bmichellepippin.com/the-issue-of-timing/
And 5 Lies Women Tell Themselves to Play COY With their Calling. Pay special attention to Lie #1 and Lie #2. https://www.bmichellepippin.com/5-lies-women-entrepreneurs-tell-to-play-coy-with-their-purpose-their-calling-their-gifts-and-their-talents/
