Get the timing right

One of the toughest thing in life is timing. In martial arts, its not so much about how strong you are that makes you hit the other guys, but if you can get your timing right and sidestep his defense. In baseball, its all about correctly gauging the trajectory and hitting the ball just right, just at the right time. Sometimes, its applying for a job just as the market crosses path with your skill set.

Since the events of the Magical Summer, I have noticed that some things have been taking place in a much more interesting timing than usual. I find that timing is as much about making the right decisions, but also about spotting opportunities as they appear and acting upon them.

For instance, in the aftermath of this summer, I was left with an income of zero. What little I had left was actually from a loan I had gotten just before, so its just delayed trouble. My girlfriend ended on a medical leave, so there was no income from that quarter either. We got pretty tight, playing the insurance waiting game, applying to whatever agencies we thought just might help, even welfare. We were that low. But then the insurance came through and a wad of cash was dropped on my lap. It was an obvious opportunity of just treat myself and splurge some, and I did that with gusto. But something else that happened too is that I took the opportunity to spend some of that cash buying things that had been delayed for far too long, because the weekly paycheck kinda screws up your financial management.

After the new year, something else happened: priorities got reassessed and a overall cleanup, a purge began to take place. Suddenly, it wasn't about making do with what we had, it was figuring out what we wanted to getting to the point of getting it. It was looking through what we had and decide whether it was worth keeping. Too long I kept things "just in case", or because I dont want them to go to waste... and they just get piled up, gathering dust and taking up space.

And once you start on that process, the rest of the universe send out a message, sort of "what took you so long?" and things just start happening. Job opportunities that allows not only better income, but that allows better living conditions. Once that your optics are reset, you keep certain things in mind, like that apartment that's been teasing you for months, and poof! the income develops so that you can upgrade to the cooler place. While you're upgrading to the cooler place, you start looking at your furniture and you notice how much of it was just making do with what you found, and you start noticing the things that you actually want to follow you to the new place.

You decide that you want a lifestyle makeover.

Its not that the lifestyle you have is bad, its that its patchwork, a collection of knicknacks that dont quite mesh, a sort of halfhazard mess that needs some solid work. And that's where things stand at the moment. While I am thinking a little ahead of where I can stand, I am going through mental lists of what has to stay and what has to go, what furniture I want to gather, what organization will be required. I'm ahead of the game, because we haven't looked at new apartments yet, nor has the new job started, but the timing is just right. There's enough time for us to get settled in the new rhythm, gather the necessary funds, find the new apartment, give notice to the landlords, pack all of our stuff, get rid of the extras, get my treatments started and be done by the time it becomes necessary for me to return to work...

Timing is everything.

The stars are right.