Give yourself permission to take your time
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been so immersed in the virtual world lately that it seems like the pressure has increased to be incredibly witty, insightful, and on topic at the drop of a hat. ‘If you’re not twittering, you’re not succeedding’ seems to be a popular mantra. I’m not wired that way – if I read something thought provoking I like to mull it over for a day or two before making a comment about it. When I get a Facebook invite from someone I don’t recognize I pull out my high-school yearbook to see if that rings any bells before I accept it (it’s amazing what 20+ years changes or doesn’t change!) But maybe it’s not so necessary to be the first voice or the loudest voice, even on the Internet. It just seems that way.
I’ve noticed that some of the bigger blogs, like zenhabits have removed the comment feature lately and I came across an article about a top gadget reviewer, David Pogue’s secret weapon, that attributes a large portion of his popularity to the fact that he never rushes in at the first opportunity, but actually waits quite a while before reviewing gadgets and technology – long past the point when geeks consider it new.
Most of the people out there that are giving advice on how not to miss out on the party (or the millions) are most likely a bit worried that they’ve missed out themselves. Maybe the party is actually behind them and if they just turned around and headed in a different direction things would be different. That doesn’t mean you get to use it as an excuse not to take action but absolutely do give yourself permission to go at your pace and not the Internet’s.
