I woke up this morning and as usual, I went online to get a sense of what happened in the hours that I slept.
As I scrolled through Twitter, I basked in more stories about Beychella, was super proud of K.Dot's Pulitzer, lost my cool at hearing of Cole's album – which drops on April 20, 2018 – and got shocked out of my shoes by the fact that Joe Burden put his pettiness aside to compliment Nicki's Chun Li.
You can say I had a roller coaster morning.
It was as I was going through these emotions that I stumbled on a tweet that made me bolt upright.
It was, almost word for word, an idea that I came about sometime in December, 2017. I was supposed to begin implementation of the idea in January, 2018, with the culmination of my thought process coming together in June. I was excited about the prospect and kept envisioning what would happen when it finally became real. Somehow, I let January become April and till now, I hadn't even put the idea to paper, talk more implementing the first stages.
I looked at the tweet over and again; from the eerily familiar design of the project, down to the words I wanted to use and I realized how, in wasting so much time, it would look like I was copying this idea when I finally did mine.
I began to wonder why the flying hell I didn’t get to work when the idea first dropped. I didn’t have to think too far though. I knew exactly what the problem was! First, I didn’t think it was the right time. I wanted to wait for a perfect day to start, or when I wasn’t so busy with my day job, or when I felt writer’s energy. I know! That is not a thing. But I like it so, go and rest! Or whatever excuse came up to keep pushing it back. I really wanted things to be just right to get to work.
But I waited. (Read wasted).
And now, my idea is no longer just mine.
Honestly, this is the first time I have really felt bad about procrastinating. It is not like the idea was novel or I stood to make millions from it. I got the idea months ago and felt it was great. If you know me and my penchant for putting my work down, you would know that I almost never call any of my ideas great. But this one was! I was excited about deploying this idea and I knew it would change the lives of everyone who would come to share it.
See what the delay time has caused me?! Girl! You better get yourself together!
The only plus side to this is that the idea is people-based and designed to provide a platform for people dealing with the varying degrees of dysfunction that plagues us as a people. No one has a monopoly on helping others. So yeah! Anyone who wants to colour me a copycat can go right ahead.
But imagine if it was an idea that was life changing in the I-could-become-a-billionaire-if-it-takes-off kind of way. I could have just lost my ticket to living the fab life and taking vacations in Seychelles and Barbados because I procrastinated. I know that there are no guarantees in life but darn! Guarantees don’t come to people who waste opportunities because the time just wasn’t right!
Sometimes, you really just have to make your Amala as the water is boiling.
That tweet was the biggest wake up ‘konk’ on my big head if I ever saw one and boy am I rearing to go! I am not waiting for any perfect time or all that nonsense. I am going to put out stuff as they come and hope to get my groove and rhythm back on.
So it is time to work work work work work work!
PS: Ever wasted time on an idea and regretted it? Share your stories with me and we just might use it to inspire some people to get off that lazy arse!