There comes a time

I’m convinced that the SNAP Project is my opportunity to do something great. A very big claim to live up to, but I believe it just the same. However to hit this one out of the park, to take this one the distance will require a discipline, persistence, and determination above what I have been capable of in the past. When I set this goal for myself, I do so willingly. I know that setting my sights above what I have been capable, of extending myself to new heights, I grow into my lofty goals.

One area that will require great effort is focusing on producing instead of consuming. One of my big challenges, professionally and personally is focusing on only one thing. I’ll admit it, I get bored easily. A victim of a short attention span, or a hyper-active society. I need constant input, new data, new challenges, and new problems to solve. I love technology, I love computers, I love reading about them, and playing around with them. To be successful, however, I strongly believe I need to curb that passion. Or better still, I need to focus that passion. I need to concentrate on only what will benefit me and SNAP.

There are some who say, and I’ve seen it within my own professional life, when consuming massive amounts of information can lead to an ability to put things together, solve the trickiest of problems, see patterns where none seem to exist. This is obviously a powerful asset, but it takes time. It can even become a consuming activity, when we believe that we will “miss out” on that one piece of information that will make it “all” fit together.

But there comes a time, when we need to put everything aside. We need to stop researching, minimize our reading (what you thought I would say stop reading?). We need to change our perspective. We need to stop consuming what others write, what others produce, and become a producer. We need to start writing, we need to start coding, we need to make our dreams happen. There comes a time when we must trust that we have the skills, abilities, experiences, information, or whatever necessary to make exciting things happen. We may be able to support our goal along the way, by supplementing our knowledge, but it had better be critical to our success.

Call it the magic bullet theory. Call it the missing link theory. However you want to call it, what we must face. What we must accept, is that there is probably nothing missing, nothing keeping us from our success, except ourselves. What we should be asking ourselves instead is how deep are we going to throw ourselves into our project? What commitment are we willing and able to make? I believe that there comes a time for everyone chasing a dream, to stop chasing, and make the dream come true. For me, I believe that time has come.