Waiting for a Miracle

Sometimes I feel like I am spending all my time waiting for something to happen. Maybe it’s a phone call about a proposal or an email giving the answer to a question that has been asked. Doing a lot of Kolbe A assessments means that I am sometimes waiting for a last team member to go on the ‘net’ and finish. As a 9 in Quick Start this can feel instinctively torturous!

Lately I feel like we are all waiting for something to happen. We’re waiting to see if the economy is going to get better. We’re waiting to see if the weather will get better. We’re waiting to see if…You can fill in the blank.

Why are we waiting? What kind of action are we planning to take if the media says or a politician says the economy has turned the corner? Will it somehow increase consumer confidence? Will banks and financial institutions start lending money and will businesses start spending?

Taking action is scary. There is danger involved. However we look at it, not taking action can be more dangerous especially when the outcome may be uncertain. About a year ago I was asked to sit on a committee at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. The purpose of the committee was to think outside the box and help the gallery expand revenue, audiences and programming. I admit to being somewhat skeptical about this committee. What could we do that had not been thought of before by the excellent leadership team at the AGH.

Last week along with 200 other people I attended the outcome of our work as a committee. The AGH will by next spring have a brand new retail space front and centre in Hamilton’s revitalized James St. North arts district. This stand alone space will sell contemporary home furnishings and art and have a wonderful meeting space for events. When we started to discuss this idea as a committee I said “we must do this. The risk to the organization of not doing it will be greater than doing it.” This will be an absolute ‘game changer’ for the AGH. We did our due diligence, crunched the numbers and got a lot of opinions and ideas. Now we are going for it.

Waiting for others to say yes, waiting for the weather to change or the economy to get better doesn’t feel as good as taking action, making things happen or planning your own game changing event. We all need to change that habit. I am going to go and make some calls. What about you?