This Time is the Next Time

As we learned from our Investment in Excellence training, whenever we have temporary setbacks, rather than lament over what we used to call failures, we simply look at it is an opportunity to learn how to do things better “the next time.” So when does the next time begin? Starting...now? Okay…now? How about…now?

Sometimes, we delay changing and improving, not so much because of the improving part, but because of the changing part. As Lou Tice tells us in about every way possible to reinforce the message, the best way to change is through affirmations. “Talking about the future in the present tense”…”we become like and move toward that which we think about”…remember? Affirmations – they work. Come on people, you know he’s right. Take control of your life. Okay, that’s my pitch for affirmations.

There’s a story of two seventy year old women that had been friends for about sixty of those years. One of the women told the other that she had always wanted to go to culinary school and become a chef and had always regretted not doing it. So, she had applied to a program, was accepted, and would graduate in about three years. Her friend said, “How can you do that? You’ll be seventy-three years old when you finish.” The first woman responded, “In three years, I’ll be seventy-three years old anyway.”

A couple parcels of wisdom from the chef-to-be are that the sooner you start the sooner you finish and that it’s never too late (if you begin now). Whether it’s culinary school, your bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree, learning Spanish, learning ballroom dancing, being more generous (with time and money), becoming your authentic self, getting to know your neighbors, learning to relax, or applying for that new job, the sooner you start learning and changing, the sooner you will have learned and grown.

Quoting a famous woman named Oprah, “When we know better, we do better.” So do better now, don’t wait to learn and change, because this time truly is the next time.