Two Rules for Possibility: Always Be Early, and Always Start

First published on July 16, 2018

This morning I looked at my watch, looked at the amount of time I had before I needed to leave, and slowed down. I thought - to be safe, to make sure I'm on time, I have time to do one thing. Just one.

I chose the thing and did it. It had taken four minutes less than I thought, so I replied to another email thinking 'I can do this and still be on time'. But I couldn't. It took longer, and the time I had for something to go wrong was used up so that when something did, I was suddenly running late. And now I'm sweating on a train, behind schedule.

Humans are terrible at understanding time. To paraphrase a brilliant thought from Tony Robbins, we always overestimate what we can achieve in short periods of time (days, weeks, maybe months or even one year - this is why our to do lists never get done), and we grossly underestimate what we can achieve in longer periods of time (think 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years).

These articles, written in 12 minutes (less today because it took me a couple of minutes to settle down after rushing for the train) are an exercise in possibility. I started by doing five, and then continued, one twelve minute post at a time, until there are nearly 100. One 12 minute piece of writing at a time.

I recently discovered that fantasy novelist Peter V Brett is another train writer, creating vast swathes of his first novel on the New York subway, on his phone.

Another exercise in possibility is in my mind because it was three years ago on Saturday that someone paid me to coach them for the first time. I couldn't believe it. Now there are many people I have coached, and the number of hours ticks up every week. One hour or half hour at a time.

It is painful to always be late, and to always leave something we thought we could do unfinished.

And it is tragic to think of all the things that never start - the blogs, the novels, the businesses, the career changes, the paintings, the fitness programmes - because they seem too big.

There are two rules we need to live by.

Always be early. I learnt this from an American football coach, via Ros Zander. It's almost impossible to be on time - it's an exercise in squeezing things in, in walking just a bit faster or a bit slower. It's unpleasant and you almost always fail. Being early - that's something that you can do (although it's not necessarily easy, and I haven't got it down yet). The timeframeof possibility is, always be early.

Always start. That's all you need to do. Big dreams, small steps. And trust that when you start, and decide to start, day after day, time will become your ally in creation, not your enemy. Years will pass and you will have created a body of work you can be proud of. The practice of possibility is, always start.