The Importance of Good Timing

Timing is everything.  How often have you heard this comment?  It implies that success goes to the person with the right timing.  If you watch a good athlete, you can see the importance of timing over factors such as strength or power.  A good golf swing is an example of this.  Some sports are power sports and require less skill than sheer strength.   Skill sports like golf, tennis, fencing and karate may require or put more emphasis on timing than other sports. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine any sport where timing is not important.  Great comedians must have perfect timing or they will find their jokes going right over the audiences head.  Photographers talk about the importance of timing in getting those great pictures. Business is full of opportunities that are time sensitive. Today, you may have an opportunity to make a fortune and tomorrow it is gone.  Good business opportunities will always be seized by someone else, whose timing is better.

So, how do we get our timing to be better or is it all just luck?  Can we improve our timing? The answer is yes, but it takes practice and patience. Great timing comes from practice and repeated failures. It takes time to get great timing.  People are not born with great timing, it is something we develop.  The person you envy because of their great timing is someone who is practicing their skill or activity on a regular basis. When you see someone in good shape at 80 years of age, do you think they were born that way?  I will bet my last dollar, they worked at staying in shape by watching their diet and by making sure they got plenty of exercise.  They put lots of time into it and they did not just get lucky. Too often we ascribe success to luck. Luck is factors beyond our control. Happily, success is within our control and has less to do with luck than it does with practice and hard work.  Good timing is a result of both practice and hard work. Read the book "Talent is Overrated" by Geoffrey Colvin and you can learn about the concept of "Deliberate Practice."  This is not exactly what the term would suggest.  It involves a great deal of practice but a focused set of practice exercises that depend on your skills and abilities and the specific tasks you want to master.  These techniques work in business, music, sports or chess. 

Amazon: Talent is Overrated

Where do you need better timing in your life?  In what areas, do you feel that your timing has been weak or off the mark? What skills or activities do you want to be better in?  Can you make a schedule to practice these skills?  Do you have the patience?  Can you find the time to improve your timing?