How to define a better time to start a project?

According to Christine Cayol, author of the book "Why Chinese people have time", time is a matter of cultural representation. Think for a moment what it means to you: Quality? Quantity? Something mechanical? Biological? A race? Contemplation?

“The westerner fights with time all the time. It's like time is an enemy. Something we're constantly running from. It's something that needs to be controlled, mastered, sliced, predicted, measured,” she says.

Some of this comes from a certain disease or epidemic related to cell phone use. Never before in history has a single device incorporated so many everyday features, controlling everything and every moment. This is actually an insight brought by Jocelyn K. Glei of Hurry Slowly (which by the way is a great podcast tip on how to be more productive, creative and resilient through the simple act of "slowing down"). It’s like we're running an endless marathon, to get to a place we don't even know where it is. Who are we to control time? We cannot add a single minute to our existence.

Time has power in itself. We have to start seeing him as an ally, a friend. 

‍Christine says that the Chinese think very carefully (and intuitively) about the right time to start things. Is this the best time to start a new relationship? A new project? The construction of the new house? Unthinkable for us to conclude that it would be better to wait for next spring. Perhaps because we forget to listen to our own instincts and want to prove ourselves capable at all costs. Deep down we know that the suffering was predictable, as it was not the right time.

For her, the main question is not when, but with whom. Imagine that you are on a project, anxious to close a deal but the client keeps changing what was agreed, nothing is decided and you are more than impatient. The question is "WHEN?!". When will he decide? When are we going to finish? What is the deadline? (the most horrible name by the way). But if your friend, who is on this project with you, tells you "Just chill, it's not the time yet, let's wait. When the time is right it will come". What really matters: when will the project end or the time, learning, and trust you will share with your friend for the duration of the project?

Maybe it’s the right time to listen to what the gut’s saying. To feel the time and surrender. Time has power in itself. It will come.