The Right Place at the Right Time

In my world, between STORY, POTSC and my own always in-progress projects (did I mention my two year old?), there is never a shortage of worthy things to throw in on.

(I prefer too much greatness knocking at the door to being bored out of my mind any day.)

And while my younger self might’ve been hemming and hawing (really? did I just use the phrase “hemming and hawing”?? am I ninety?!!) about which projects I should spread my time between, I have–at the elderly age of 32–acquired some good inklings about what to say “yes” and “no thanks” (and “not a chance, joker”) to.

Here’s one of them that almost never fails me.

I think of it as the “Right Place, Right Time” rule.

If you reflect backward, there are times in life–being an older sister, walking with youth group kids from age 15 to 21, nurturing massive teams of volunteers to change your community–that spark a unique feeling of “this is what I was made to do” in a person. In those moments, as events are unfolding or relationships are growing, you have a sweet sense of “this is right” that sweeps over your spirit. You walk away from projects, from church, from lunch, from sending off an email feeling like “This is it! I am in the right place at the right time.”

And guess what? I’ve found that there’s a pattern to those moments. As it turns out, the same sorts of things–relationships, collaboration, did I mention relationships?–tend to hit me between the eyes with that kind of can’t-deny-it affirmation.

I am in the Right Place at the Right Time. I’m sure of it.

As you can imagine, catching onto this was extremely helpful to figuring out how to best invest my time.

So when I go into a project, I ask myself “Does the task at hand align with my Right-Place-Right-Time experiences?”

If it does, it’s a whole lot easier for visionaries to get and keep my buy-in.

Example: I’ve been talking prep with an event coming to Michigan. One area they would like to use me is in doing volunteer coordination. The proposed task, literally in writing!, was that they want me to pour into the team. To help the service experience become a memorable and satisfying one that makes volunteers walk away charged.

I instantly knew they were speaking my Right Place, Right Time language. Mainly because before my eyes could even scan to the end of the email, my heart was beating faster. My spirit was at attention. My fingers were flying to write them back.

And slowly awareness dawned.

Yes.

When it comes to the most successful and life giving experiences I’ve had, this hit the Right-Place-Right-Time target dead center.

So can you do everything that falls into the Right-Place-Right-Time category? No way. In fact, even this opportunity may be one I choose to forego because my life is reveling in Right-Place-Right-Time kind of stuff these days.

But man, those emotional triggers, that sense of swirl inside of you, that heightened alertness in your spirit, that is there for a reason. It’s there to draw you to what is good for you and to pull you away from doing stuff that doesn’t scratch your soul’s sweet spot to come alive doing what you love.