It’s an age-old question. This week it got me thinking.
My beautiful wife had a 9 o’clock appointment. I wasn’t sure she’d remembered the time, so I asked, innocently, “When are you leaving?”
Her wonderful reply: “When I finish my coffee.”
I laughed. Then I thought: isn’t that the most appropriate way to be living? In the moment. Not rushing out the door.
She knew exactly what time it was.
𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
For many of us here in New Zealand, life has been on pause. We’ve been waiting for the election, waiting to see who will lead us. Life in pause mode ... waiting...
... well, that moment has now passed.
So, what now?
Some of you may feel sad and frustrated that your party lost. Some may feel vindicated that your party won. Some may feel angry that your view has been ignored. Some may not care a bit, because you’re simply battling the growing cost of living and trying to put food on the table.
Wherever you landed, here’s the thing. The election decided who leads us. It didn’t decide what time it is.
You do.
Time Is Three-Dimensional
Life has seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. So do we.
As a young married couple, you spend your time starry-eyed. Add young children, and the time you invest in each other changes. The toddler is stealing time. You steal moments when you can, just seeking a moment of rest.
Then come the adolescent years. Turbulent. Doors slam, moods swing, and you’re the taxi, the referee and the bank. What you crave most is adult time: one uninterrupted conversation with the person you married.
Then, almost without warning, the empty nest. The house goes quiet. Two people who poured twenty years into raising a family look across the table and have to find each other again.
Every stage carries a different kind of time pressure.
That’s home. Now layer in work: deadlines, targets, the plan that has to land this quarter. Then layer in the global economy and the tensions in Europe, in America, and closer to home.
Home. Work. World. It’s quite a concept; how three-dimensional time really is.
A Time for Everything
There’s a great passage in Ecclesiastes 3. People often use it in a clichéd way, but read it slowly, with where our world is at right now.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
– Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 (NIV)
Let that marinate. I know it’s binary. But somewhere between these poles is a golden mean, a point where it should be for us as people, as communities, and as a nation.
Now take a pen. For each pair, circle one side: where you are, or where you believe we need to be.
Take your time.
What pattern do you see? Are you in a building phase or a tearing-down phase? Is it time to heal? Is it time to plant, or do you want to keep uprooting? Is it a time to embrace? A time to dance?
I don’t know where your heart's at. I know where mine is.
It’s Time to Plant
I unequivocally believe it's time to plant.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, we’re in late spring. Even the season is telling us: plant.
What do I want to plant?
Healing. It’s a time to heal.
Building. Communities, narratives and a nation coming together.
Embracing what’s good, and all that is good in our society.
Mending. Loving. Peace.
Naive as I might be, I believe that if you hold that in your heart, it will reflect in society. Because the principle of life is this: what you focus on expands. Always has. Always will.
Focus on the good, the positive, the encouraging, and it expands. Focus on everything that fuels anger, hatred and dislike, and your world becomes smaller and smaller. As my mentor Darren Hardy would say, it’s like looking at the world through a distorted keyhole.
Many leaders see the world that way. Underneath sit real fears and anxieties about global tensions.
So, what can you do?
Your Sandpit
Stephen Covey called it your circle of influence. I call it your sandpit. Only you can decide your next step.
Don’t worry about the big global tensions. If the momentum is that we build connection close to home, then the time we have will be worthwhile.
If you lead a business, you may have parked the hire, the investment or the plan in a drawer until the result was in.
The result is in.
If you’ve just stepped up to lead and you’re already carrying too much, hear this: planting isn’t another load. It’s one seed. Small.
TEETH
Many years ago I gave a speech on giving. I wrote it to myself first. The acronym was TEETH.
Teeth sounds strange. I’m not asking you to show your teeth. I’ll confess, when I dictated this piece, I could only find four letters. Somewhere in the fight to get here, TEETH lost a tooth. An E. It’s back in now.
We often think giving means our material wealth, our dollars and cents. We’re exhorted to give to people experiencing poverty and people in need, and I firmly believe that’s a natural cycle. But many people have nothing to give, resource-wise. They’re battling to put food on the table. Many of you reading this may be in that situation right now.
So, what can you give?
Time. Just being there. Supporting someone in some way.
Energy. Mow the lawns for your neighbour. Offer to fetch the kids. Do the grocery shopping for your elderly neighbour. Push someone’s trolley back to the bay. Small things that show care in your community.
Encouragement. A word that lifts someone who’s flagging. Tell the new leader what they’re getting right. Tell the tired parent they’re doing well. It costs nothing, and it may be the only good word they hear this week.
Talent. We all get 86,400 seconds every day. Across a working year, we spend about 2,000 hours at work. Divide your annual income by 2,000 to get your hourly rate. You don’t have to earn that every hour. You can choose to give some of it away, pro bono: finances, legal, marketing, fixing cars, maintenance. Manage it, protect it, and plan for it deliberately. But consider giving something to someone in need.
Heart. Care and candour. A note, a letter, a phone call. A heartfelt expression of care and love to someone you know who needs it.
Time. Energy. Encouragement. Talent. Heart.
None of it requires your wallet, although that matters too.
What Time Is It for You?
My wife wasn’t late. She finished her coffee, and she left on time. She knew what time it was.
New Zealand has had its pause.
Now look back at the pairs you circled. That’s your season. Don’t leave it on the page.
Pick one letter of TEETH. Pick one person in your sandpit. Write their name down.
One seed. One person. One week.
Before you finish your next coffee, decide. Before the week is out, do it...
... and if enough of us plant, in enough sandpits, we won’t be waiting on Wellington to build the country we want. We’ll already be building it.
The votes are counted. The coffee’s finished. It’s time to build.
So, what time is it for you?
Gary Good, Founder — LeaderLegacy