Welcome to another episode of uncomplic, uncomplicating business for teachers, helpers and givers. I am Sara Torpey. I am the creator of selling for weirdos. I am a business coach. I am a parent. I am leading into summer all the things right now with you. So I'm happy to be with you today. Thanks so much for joining me today. 

We are talking about trust and timelines. I know this, I think, is as someone that works with business owners and people who are parents and people who are busy and all the things, one of the hardest things on the table, it is maybe the hardest version of trust, at least for me and for many, many, many of my clients. So it is also something that has come up this year as we've been doing interviews in the trust series with other people. It's all about trusting time and knowing things will work out when they're meant to, and that is really, really hard. 

So what I wanted to bring you today are a couple of ways to practice trusting your own timeline. If you find that you are often panicked, where you're worried that things aren't going to work out, where you're feeling really pressured, where you're worried that, you know, it's not all going to shake out, the timing's not going to work, and you're constantly feeling guilty that you're not spending enough time one place or another, or just really pressured and panicked. This is for you, because this is all about sort of subtracting some of that panic out and trusting the pace of your success, which is not always simple. 

So I have four things I want to share with you today. First, trusting your timeline, for me, is all about setting yourself up for success in advance. One of the things that we do when we create a timeline for something like, think about a new project you want to do, or a workshop you want to give, or some sort of thing you want to create in your business, what we often do is be like, Okay, today is June 15, for example, I am going to create all the Things, launch it and have it ready for people by June 20, knowing well that you know three of those days are weekends. One of them is or two of those days are weekends. 

One of those is, did it you're not at your desk, and then all of a sudden, you gave yourself 48 hours, of which you'll have to spend all of them working. And your life doesn't actually allow that. So often we create and expect unrealistic timelines for ourselves. I mean, I know I do it. I know you do it too. I know, I know, I know. I know it's okay, though. So the first thing is, you know when you're setting up a timeline for your project, be honest. And I say this as someone that does not enjoy that personally, but I often look at my own timelines as I'm setting them up, and it's like, okay, for real, though. Is this real? Can I do this in this period of time? Is it set to launch in a period of time where I can't actually do that right? Because it's the middle of school getting let out, it's the middle of family vacation. It's, I don't know, for some crazy reason, I tend to try to set things up like that, and always find myself at odds with my own calendar. 

So can you create a timeline for creation, for launch, for a workshop, for a challenge you want to run, for some sort of thing you want to do in your business that is actually both realistic for the time that you have to work and create, and that allows for your life to be your life. That allows the life you have in the season you're in to be what it is, right, in June, I don't know about you, but school all of a sudden will be like, Hey, we have this thing at one o'clock. Like, oh, okay, well, I guess I'm going to school at one o'clock today. Or your kid has a half day today for the like, three days they're left in school. 

So it is knowing you know what else is going on in the time of the year, it's knowing how much time you have to create and work. It's knowing that life is going to life, and that we're going to have to make allowances, and setting the timeline from there. The other thing is, when you're trusting a timeline, when you're setting yourself up for success, if it feels like it's too rushed, it's probably too rushed, right? Like the point of a timeline is not to create pressure, so you do the thing, the point of the timeline is to create space for you to do the thing. And space and pressure are different. So that's number one. Number two is going to sound really funny, but I like to. 

Think of time in two different ways. For myself, in my business, I like to think of what I think of is geologic time and minutes. So for example, if I'm going to think in geologic time, I think in grand scale, like 30 years, geologic time is much bigger than that, right? It's like the history of Earth, but I want to think in like a time unit that feels so big to me that little things aren't going to be a big deal. So I ask myself, if my goal is success 30 years from now, to be a successful business for 30 total years, what does it mean to have this particular dilemma today? Will these two days that I don't work on this matter? Will the timeline being a week longer than I feel like it really should be? Matter? Will it ruin everything? Will I be broken? Will it all fall apart, right? Because I didn't meet this day to day demand. Will geologic time work against me most of the time? The answer is no, cuz in geologic time, days are not a big deal, minutes are not a big deal, right? So when we step back into the really big picture, I think often it's like, oh, wait, if I step back into like, the 30 years of success, I'm already doing pretty well, right? I am growing each year. I am learning each year, I am meeting new people each year. I'm doing all the things it takes to be successful for the long term, one step at a time. 

Okay, then you can subtract out some of the panic, and then you can think of minutes. And for me, the question that I think of in minutes is what moves me towards my goal today? So if the goal is this business that is successful for 30 years, what is the thing I can do right now today, in this minute that will make a difference, because sometimes the things that make the most difference don't even take a whole minute. Sometimes it's the email that you sent to somebody to follow up. Sometimes it's the person you reached out to on LinkedIn. 

Sometimes it's, you know, the answer you gave to a request somebody has, I don't know I have one recently that somebody connected me with somebody else new. I took a minute, responded. She came back. We hopped on Zoom to connect a couple weeks later, and she asked me to be a guest teacher in her community. Like it didn't take a ton of time. She already kind of knew that's what she was going to ask before we got on. I just didn't know that yet, because the connection that put us together had already sort of primed her for that. 

So for you, it's like, what moves the needle right now today, what is the long term sort of time scale that I can step myself back into and out of my like, momentary panic to keep perspective. For me, the like, one week at a time isn't really it doesn't always help me. Like, weeks and months feel like pressure, often to me, because they're like, finite and very limited, and they feel like they go so fast, but for me, this 30 year outlook, you know, like, what's going to matter in 30 years combined with what matters right now really helps me to keep moving forward, but also maintain perspective. And I think when we trust a timeline, we have to have both working in trust requires us to stay sort of cognizant of the grand scale and also today, right? And that is the balance to strike. 

That's why I'm constantly thinking about these things, because I have to, because I have to practice this, just like we all practice everything, right? The third thing, and this one is going to sound maybe weird, but is to act as if so, when I trust what's going on in the timeline, when I trust how my time is working, when I'm taught trusting the timeline of success for a given project or a business or whatever, how do I act? How do I behave? How do I not act? What do I say? What do I do? What do I think about, and what do I not say and not do and not think about? Because here's the thing, when I am trusting that things are on plan and working as they're supposed to, I do not spend a lot of energy wondering if they're working right, when I am trusting that time is the timeline is right in the process is going as it should. I don't spend any time trying to hurry things up. I don't try to double my workload in weird ways. I. I don't get, like, pushy with myself or other people. I know it's all going to work out. It's a very grounded place to be. 

Do I always know that in my head? No, but do I remember that sometimes it's my job to act, act like I do, even if I don't? Yes, like, right now, for example, we're in the midst of buying and selling a house, this, to me, has been the ultimate act of trusting the timeline, and it is hard right now for me to do this like I am struggling with it. By the time this podcast episode comes out, hopefully I'll be done struggling with it, and it'll all be moving forward. I'm sure that's the case, but you can tell right now, even now, I'm like, I don't know, but my job is to show up and think, Okay, it's all going to plan. Nothing is wrong, everything is right. Everything is going to work the way it's meant to, and just simply take the next step.

 What I'm not going to do is panic, because when I trust the timeline, I don't panic. I know everything's okay, right? I don't give my time and energy to panic or guilt or worry about that kind of stuff. I just continue to do the things that matter and do the best I can with what I have, because in selling a house, for example, you know, not everything that I want to be in my control is in my control, and that includes the timeline in some ways, but I just have to trust it's going to work. So for me, for you, can you look at your timeline and then choose, over and over again to act as if you trust it, even when you're not sure it's hard or it's not simple, or it's not it's easy, but it's not, or it's sorry, it's simple, but it's not easy. 

Boy, that was hard for me to get out the last thing. And this is, you know, in all things, there's one that matters more than the rest. And I think this last one is the one. The last one is be an active participant. 

Trusting your timeline does not mean that you are passive about it. It does not mean that you just hope the things work out and happen when they're meant to happen. That is not what trusting the timeline is. Trusting the timeline is an active process. It's a two way street. You set up the timeline so it's successful, so it's easy for you to succeed. You act as if you trust it. You are aware in the geologic time scale and the minute to minute scale, and then what you are doing is your part, right? You are not waiting for success to happen. You are doing the things you know it takes to be successful. You are doing the outreach. You are networking, you are connecting, you are inviting, you are grounding yourself, because those are the things that are needed in a successful business and a successful sales process, right? So if you are going to trust your timeline, it is not sitting back and hoping it happens, because that's not an active stance in trust that is waiting. And they're different. So how can you be an active participant in your timeline, in the process you're trying to lay out and also not panicked, right? That is the ultimate question, isn't that? But I think if we are aware that part of acting in trust is being an active participant, then it is easier to be like, Okay, what does it look like if I am participating in the timeline today, how am I moving the timeline forward, and in what ways am I waiting and not taking action that I could so for you today, try some of these things. 

Let me know your thoughts. Tell me about all of your thoughts related to time. You can always come find me in my Facebook group. It's called uncomplicating business for teachers, helpers and givers. Just like this podcast, you can schedule a time to talk on my website, which is called Torpey coaching.com you can follow me on Tiktok. You can come visit me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty easy to find. I am all the places if you want to connect and you just want to chat, please just reach out and do that. 

You can send me an email, or we can find a time on the calendar that it works to talk one on one. But if you have questions about time in the timeline, if you have questions about trust, if you have thoughts, please feel free to send them my way. I would love to hear from you and from there. Happy timelines, happy summer, happy trust my friends, I know you've got this.