On...Preparedness
Noun
“the state of being prepared; readiness.”
When looking back at the road that led to now, it’s quite amazing how tiny decisions or actions from the past are critical in sparking pivotal events later down the line.
Small moments connect and escalate. Sometimes the escalation point is triggered by a series of destructive behaviours or carelessness that lead to a downfall, a loss or even a tragedy. Other times they are the good habits and smart decisions within the everyday that escalate to achievement or better still, a chance to be more of the best part of who you are.
In mathematical terms my theory revolves around the below formula:
A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+B+A+B+B+C+C+D+A+B+B+C+D = Next stage of you.
Today as I was painting away in my room it struck me that it was Monday. Monday used to be a dreaded day.
Years ago when I worked at Arcadia Group in my first grad job, I needed to be at work for for 7.45 AM to print pages upon pages of socks’ sales figures and staple them together. The printers regularly jammed. Sometimes the staple wouldn’t quite puncture all the sheets which was really annoying. Coffee never woke me up and I often failed to understand how I needed to interpret the numbers cleverly for my boss.
This Monday is different. I spent a lot of the day planning art things, painting and now writing.
In my previous agency freelance contract I used to have half days off on Wednesdays. I requested that in order to have some time off in the week to paint and run any art related errands e.g going to the framers which is loooong to do on weekends.
In other jobs, not having some time off in the week to do certain things caused problems and I wanted to avoid that this time around. They were very understanding and accommodating of this.
One Tuesday, a week before I left that agency, I got called for an interview at the vegan diner I now work at part time.
They were available on Wednesday afternoon to meet me.
I was free.
I got that job.
The diner happens to be closed on Mondays.
I can now do art on Mondays.
Everything is connected.
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At the same agency, I once asked some of the team I was in if they believed in good luck.
My wise friend Katie said, and I remember this so clearly, that “good luck is the intersection between preparedness and opportunity”.
DAMN.
What a beautiful piece of Stoic wisdom right there.
For those of us that have our basic physical and psychological needs met (e.g food, water, shelter, disposable income, a support system e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) then well, it’s generally true - luck happens when people who are prepared are given the opportunity. Of course there will be exceptions where people are given undeserving opportunities but the lack of preparation will usually strike a blow...eventually.
So aside from the obvious exceptions, for those of us that are looking to self- actualise, this piece of advice should strike a chord.
We should ask ourselves this: “if an opportunity arrived on our doorstep, one that we have dreamed of, believing in our ability, could we take it?
Some key considerations could be, are we healthy enough, do we have the financial means to pay for any expenses the opportunity may initially incur, do we have time in our schedule to make space for this, do we have the right equipment to create what we need to, are we mentally strong enough?
i.e Are we prepared?
We cannot dictate whether opportunity will be given to us. It’s usually out of our control. However, we can be prepared. That job offer may not land in our lap until we update the CV. That painting won’t sell, if we don’t use our Monday off creating. That relationship may not flourish if there is no time left for it.
So I guess, what I’m metaphorically saying is, request that Wednesday afternoon off to get that Monday off.