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It is obvious that time is passing us by. We all have a tendency to brush things off until later when there is still plenty of time remaining on the table of life. But the roses are in bloom now. Now is the time to see them. Picture a time line. Similar to what they have in books, 10 B.C. this happened, 12 A.D. that happened. In many ways we set up a time line for ourselves. In 2002 this will be the dot, in 2003 that will be the dot. But we tend to make the dots solid in our thinking, we cement them in. A friend calls. Let’s get together for lunch. It’s 2001. I say, I’ll pencil you in for 2005. Part of this relates to the belief that we can’t handle a multitude of things now. I’m afraid that this will be the last straw on my capabilities towards multitasking. But I haven’t yet determined that, but I do think so. I can only afford one or two dots for the present on my time line. But there is a remote possibility that we could have a cluster of dots, with an acceleration and expansion of activities now. The power of the sun centers on its internal mass and my present can center on more than I thought. Look at the guy who says I want a girlfriend, but after I finish law school, this idea is in a current movie called Legally Blond. He had put that dot into another compartment of time, really not giving full consideration to this as a present possibility. So, whether we feel ready to dive deeply into those waters of the present or not, we can begin to tread lightly and give more consideration to this on a now basis. Or we can move our dot or lot ahead on the time line. A friend calls for a lunch date in 2001, being the flexible person I am , I say I can find the time to meet you in 2010. We’ll link up then. Can we bring our dot’s closer to the present maybe, can I enjoy this person’s company in the more immediate future. Can I move the dot back, perhaps even to the same year or God forbid the same month? But let’s give some credence to adjusting the dots on our time line, depending on what we really want to do. Maybe we push those dots so far into the future we’ll never get there. A friend calls for lunch in 2001. I’ll meet you in 2080. The dot is so far out there on the time line that the lunch engagement may not actually happen. Or I say, I’ll meet you in 1999. Will the friend say, I can’t get back to 1999, it’s 2001, and what can I do? So as we move along on this line, who, what, when, where and how can we link up. And what is preventing us from linking up. Obviously there can be an erosion of opportunity to link up. I say, I’ll catch the repeat of that PBS special but will the repeat be running for 10 years? Our best bet my not be our only bet but it might be better to see the horse while its running. And we don’t necessarily want to make the same bets we have made in the past. Bet your two dollars on every horse in the race to win and at least you have a winner and now I’m multitasking. How can we pencil in several dots now? Our linkages may be faulty as well. Our company designed a product for this market, but never actually launched it. IBM had great stuff in the 80’s, but they didn’t bring it all to the market. How could they have interfaced with the market, and even if their products were faulty, they could have gotten feedback from their customers who actually starting using their newly launched products and used that to further develop their products. But the great stuff never made it to market. So, we can consider clustering the dots on the time line into the present, and incorporating these mistakes towards further development. But let’s not assume we can place all those dots all over the place and be able to work our strategy on that basis, the clustering of the dots more into the present will give us the usable feedback we need going into the future. We can blur the dots, make them hazy to solid. Pencil in the dots lightly if you have to you as don’t have to cement them. At least a lightly penciled dot is a new dot now. Those dots may not be there that far out on the time line, and we are losing our chance now. So, even if you only press lightly on that pencil to this dot, you still have the eraser and meet your friend for lunch today just to be different and new for today.
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