Fast Action - Strike While the Iron is Hot - Seize the Day
Posted: Monday, January 16, 2012
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
In an uncertain world, in which people observe the calamities of inaction, we have developed over the centuries common universal advisories:
We will discuss these aphorisms and then make a dual observation that we should act more quickly and profoundly, and at the same time we should not be impulsively “pulling the trigger”.
If you have ever watched the Olympics and observed the primed for action sprinters, muscles tense and poised, alertness at its sharpest edge, it is absolutely frustrating to watch someone explode from the line before the gun fires. When this happens, it becomes an exercise in patience as the whole world waits for 10 runners to bring themselves back to the starting line. So while it is easy to see the importance of “fast action”, it is also human to fear the other result: not leaving fast enough.
Shakespeare Said It Well
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
From the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Brutus says the lines before the war, as he goes on to talk about Opportunity and Chance.
The Island Nation of England lived, slept, loved worked and had their very beings governed by how the tides affected shipping. Americans tend not to have this language as a part and parcel of their psychology and thinking.
If an ancient Englishman said, “Oh my Lord, it’s too late – the tides have gone out! We have lost our opportunity.”
Americans think: “Get the next Taxi. Get the next flight. Send the FedEx. Don’t run, get in the car.”
Yet, the affairs of men are much more aligned to the nature of tides. Life is not drop dead deadlines, it is the current and the texture of existence that becomes like the Tide. In the first line “the tide” refers to the Chance we receive in our lives, in our affairs of love, work, family and in all that we do. Like the ships at the port wait for the tide to be right so that they can continue their adventures. When you let yourself think about this, understand that the cycles in life, and the brevity of life itself means that our choices do make gigantic differences.
When we travel during the right tide, we gain the benefit of having things “fit”. If you grab the right opportunity, you will accrue, not just the benefit of your goal achievement, but also the breadth of experience and friends and future networks that come along with your successful choice. We can never know in advance what all the possibilities hold for us, but it is only after we try them that we know. Opportunity indeed comes uniquely packaged just for us. Certainly opportunities abound in life, but if you cherish your own efforts, and understand the value of your special choices, you can lean against the brow of the ship you took and truly understand why you took this journey and how much this choice fit your hopes, agenda and plans.
The only difference between tide and opportunity probably is that, tide comes again and again but opportunity might never ever return. Thus, if omitted ever in life, one is bound to suffer. Ask yourself a simple question: “Have I omitted something in my life just because I lacked the will and the desire to make a choice?” Go through your desires, ruminate, ponder a bit. Say it this way: “I know I can always claim to be so busy that I can’t think, but really…am I depriving myself of something that really does matter to me?”
Paralysis Analysis
Don't think too much. The weather is good, the tide is good, just start your voyage. Like the ships take the current when it's good. There will always be a reason to NOT take the right ship because you were analyzing so hard it made your head hurt. Don’t do PARALYSIS ANALYSIS. It can be killing, or wasting, or plain old time wasting. Too dramatic? It’s only your life. It is hard to be certain of destiny and luck, but there is that visceral gut-based choice that may actually mean more to you than you realize. Don’t let your over stimulated brain take away the message that is coming from your middle. When we deeply involve our whole being in this process, sometimes the issue becomes very simple, and we make a choice with a clear mind. There are indeed some things that when they are lost are lost forever. Don’t let that shuddering feeling come to you unless you have handled it with your best conscious effort.
Strike While the Iron is Hot
Act decisively and take your opportunities when they arise. If we grew up around blacksmiths, we could easily see that keeping the fire hot, and getting the metal at the right level is what the “smithy” does. To get the shape he wants, he has to know when to strike. That ringing sound of metal against metal is what the villagers would hear as the Smithy worked.
This old proverb clearly alludes to the imagery of the blacksmith or farrier at his forge. If he delays in shaping the iron when it is hot a pliable the metal soon cools and hardens and the opportunity is lost.
If you don’t strike opportunistically, then you have to start the heating process all over again, and then bang out the old “error” and pound away again until you get the shape you want. This heating is delicate and requires exacting understanding. This proverb holds much. From dating and romance come the many regrets that fill some of our lives.
· “Why didn’t I call her back, then?”
· “Why didn’t I apologize, then”
· “Why didn’t I ask her/him that question, then?”
The reason that human communication is so fraught with drama is that we are cooling and heating up at different rates for different reasons. This is oh so true in the area of romance. One needn’t get tragic with regretful fights, omissions, ill timed squabbles and silly hot rages that blow futures into the dark mist, but indeed that is what happens, when you don’t: Strike While the Iron is Hot!
Seize the Day or “Pick the Fruit”
'Carpe diem' is usually translated from the Latin as 'seize the day'. However, the more scholarly of Latin experts might have another suggestion . 'Carpe' translates literally as 'pluck', with particular reference to the picking of fruit, so a more accurate rendition is 'enjoy the day; pluck the day when it is ripe'. The extended version of the phrase 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' translates as 'Pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the future'.
The meaning is similar to that of many proverbs that we continue to use in English and is a warning to make the most of the time we have . Our time on this earth is very short, even if we are given a “long life”. Other such proverbs are: “The early bird catches the worm” or “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may'.
The sentiment here is not to let the precious things pass, as opposed to grabbing a day to crush your opponent.
So, as we emphasize pure action we must realize that we can’t just thrash away with unguided energy, and declare that we are: Striking While the Iron is Hot, Taking the right tide in your Affairs, or Seizing the Day or to make a more modern allusion.
“Boldly Go Where No Man has Gone Before”
This line from “Star Trek” does hold much. It takes a plan, it takes the capability, it takes the will and it takes a well-timed ACT. After you have decided -- your Action must be timed.
ACTION – There’s the HOW, but mainly there’s the WHEN
As the dark winter days continue to dim, making way for the first signs that spring is in the air, about a week before the vernal equinox the first Mercury Retrograde of 2012 begins on March 12th at 6 Aries 48, which appears on the horizon until April 4th at 23 Pisces 52.
A retrograde means that a star is going backward in the sky. There is a large poetic allusion here. If things are apparently going slower, that then is the time, (oftentimes) to “pull the trigger”. There is nothing forcing you forward. This means you are acting with conscious control and planning. In place of REACTING, which often is what we are really doing, when we think we are ACTING. The tides below, and the tides above are saying: “Everything is quiet now. Go ahead and ACT. Take action in place of reacting. Take a “silent attack” on a project, get through the “quiet time” and emerge victorious."
“Flying Your Colors”
“Flying Colors” comes from a time of war when flags were flown. Victory meant you could “fly your colors” A Retrograde period is when caution, carefulness and retrospection is a necessity to avoid glitches, personal misunderstanding, flawed, disrupted, and delayed communications with ourselves and others.
Although I know there will always be delays and disruptions that we cannot avoid during periods of slowness and delay. I do believe much of the frustrations and stresses that we associate with periods of preparation can be limited by acting when things are just in the doldrums.
People crossing the Atlantic often got caught in the Saragossa Sea and got becalmed. The ship just lost wind. Remember as you plan your actions that many a journey gets filled with dismay and discouragement because we don’t get the speed we want.
Remember all of our use of nature's comparisons and the comprehension of the way of things, and as we hear the slapping of the waves against our bow, let's just say to ourselves
“Well at least, I am on my way!”
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)Brilliant and well written. I believe you have captured the essence of why some of us fail in relationships early in life, and you strike a clear analogy of our wrong thinking. Great article. The clarity you bring should help many "launch their journey" successfully.Thanks for appreciating the challenge of this article.Yes, a challenge, but you have risen to it with professionalism, as always.
I resist the tide metaphor--the back and forth. Catching the wave is similar, I guess. I guess I feel more like I'm surfing the tsunami toward complete entropy. As usual, a well structured thought exersize and message. Thanks.Entropy is a concept that I would hesitate to introduce in an inspirational article about taking well timed action, but if that's where your head is at, I guess I was not up to the challenge of you today. Tsunami the same. Did you watch a bad weather report, write a prophecy, or just read some dark scripture? Tides are tides. It's probably the most ancient scientific matter that man has dealt with, right up there with fire. Thanks for your comment. It sounds like you might be in the doldrums, a great wayfaring term that carries tons of psychic and emotional analogies.
Chris, a lot of wisdom within these paragraphs. I suggest this should be required reading-for about 350 million folks. Well done! 'The Difference between FLying and Falling'...Thank you sir. I like that: "the difference between flying and falling".
You upgraded the topic and wrote such an exquisite piece!Thank you very much. I took a whole lot in for less than 2,000 words, but at least that way it doesn't take too much time to read. More time for ACTION.
Thoughtful, wise, observant, poetic, seasoned with a touch of irony and humor. I loved reading this Christofer. You're so right about the tides. So often in my life I've had a fixed idea that the tide was right, but I was wrong! The times I've let go of those - mostly fear-driven - fixed ideas I've caught a tide I didn't even realize was there - and what a fabulous experience!
As for opportunities, I've often dumped on myself for not being able to take them, but lately I've relaxed about it, because if you're not in the right space to take an opportunity, then it isn't really an opportunity, it's just the idea of one!
Love your last sentence.Thanks so much Jennifer. You, the one with Heart, are a true comment on what I am trying to get across. It seems like I succeeded. Thanks for the comment on the last sentence. You might have noticed in my articles, I take my foot off the gas at the end and put my head back and make a realistic but hopeful statement of what I have been trying to get across. You hit it. Thanks.
Christofer,
This well-written.
WinifredThanks very much.
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