In due time

I was looking for things to write about as I try to break this long hiatus of my daily writing sprint today. Then I saw this memo that I jotted down and I forgot about — When do you fall asleep? When it’s time.

This led me to think about the idea of “In due time”. As a Christian, I’m aware of and have been impressed by the concept of God’s timing (eg. “There is a time for everything” in Ecclesiastes, “In His Time” in the gosphel song of the same name). So, do things are bound to happen or not happen regardless of our desire or will? Then what about our agency?

I’m not going to open up this can of worm (Destiny vs Free will), but it made me think about how much of these are up to us and what else are up to other variables.

I came to a conclusion that I still have a lot of control and I play an important role of priming the event should it happen at all. It is still important for me to be at the right place and at the right time, which more or less I still have a lot of control over.

• What I bring to the table: My effort and persistence are crucial. These provide the substance that will act as the fuel of the things that are to happen. Especially persistence, I feel like it’s so important since it could be a long time of waiting without seeing any results.
• What’s up to others and destiny: Chance (opportunity and its frequency), cultural or social trends. Like being cast for Hollywood movies, it’s ultimately up to someone who gives us the opportunity. Be it my boss at work, readers for novelists, viewers for influencers. Those people are influenced by the social or cultural trends. There are ways to turn these external factors in our favor — by being at the right place at the right time. That’s why we strive to get into good schools and good companies and move to good neighborhoods. That’s also why we try to ride the wave of big trends by getting into promising industries or create content related to hot trends. That’s also why we try to build great relationships with people around us since we need everyone’s support to see the things we want to happen actually happen.

My examples of things finally happened in due time:

• Piano: My mom wanted me to be good at playing piano so she made me take private lessons and practice piano during my entire childhood. I resisted furiously since I didn’t find any joy in playing piano. Many many years passed, and after going through the Pandemic and starting to hang out with people who play piano, I got into playing piano. I started taking lessons and now I’m going steady with my progress. It’s been about a year and I feel great when I play the piano.
• Workout: I was probably the farthest person from being fit and hitting the gym, always favoring playing video games and watching movies instead of doing any form of workout. The pandemic has changed that for me. After being stuck at home for a long time and realizing how fast I became out of shape, I picked up working out regularly. I build a garage gym and started working out with personal trainers. Then I signed up for boxing and judo and these days picked up tennis (tennis was influenced by a pretty person I’m dating lol).

Looking back, I see that the 2020 Pandemic played a big role in my trajectory toward these positive changes in my life. It goes to show that a lot of things are outside our control (who could’ve predicted the Pandemic?), but still a lot of things are up to us and we have agency to put ourselves in favorable environment (eg. who to hang out with and get influenced by, who to date etc).

I look forward to seeing where I will be at in a year or two, with my daily routines (writing, reading, coding, piano, Japanese, design). I will still trust in my ability to create the optimal environment and be persistent to pursue my goals so good things can happen in due time.