Tired of Waiting For The Cows To Come Home?

Image via WikipediaI've never liked to wait much.  Waiting in doctors offices to be called on, waiting to hear from someone about the results of a job interview, waiting to find out what you made on the final exam, none of those scenarios are very appealing are they?  I am often trying to figure out if there is a way to get around the waiting part.  If I arrive early for the appointment will I get in early or just have to wait longer?  If I call about the interview, will I seem eager to work or annoyingly bothersome and impatient?  There are some situations where I know it is better to wait because then I get the information I need to make a better decision, but discerning between those situations and one where it is actually a good idea to charge ahead, well, there's the challenge.

 I recently read this quote from Elbert Hubbard, writer, philosopher and lecturer who wrote, "Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field in hope that the cow will back up to them."  Sometimes waiting for life to hand you whatever you are looking for is a bad plan.  In fact, chances of it happening are unlikely, much like waiting for that cow to back up to the stool.  There have been long periods in my life when I was sitting on a stool in a meadow with no cows in sight, figuratively speaking of course. Sometimes you gotta get up off the stool and start looking for cows.  Sometimes you gotta call the cows and sometimes you need to chase them down. Often, when I blast ahead without really knowing all the rules and procedures, I think later that I could have had a better product if I had spent more time researching it and  talked to more people.  Then again, sometimes I think I would still be researching publishing a book and starting a blog post if I had waited to get all my ducks in a row and to feel really competent and ready. To accomplish that feeling you have to do something for a long time and let's face it... whenever you start something new, we all have to start with not knowing what we're doing.  So what about you, are you sitting on a stool hoping for a cow to pass by or are you chasing them down?