On the Cusp

Here we are on the cusp of a new year, more ready than usual to assign the old one to the dustbin of history. At the risk of tempting fate, it’s hard to imagine how 2021 could be much worse than 2020.

Whether we like it or not, we’ll soon be drinking full from the cup of 2021. Time allows us to stay on the cusp just long enough to make silly noises and ring in the new year.

But with most other things in life, we linger on the cusp for considerably longer. We’re always seeing articles that we are on the cusp of taming nuclear fusion, or that we are on the cusp of connecting our cities by hyperloop. And harnessing the energy of the tides? We’ve been on that cusp since I was a kid.

If you’re like me, you’re on the cusps of a hundred good things, and if we don’t do something about it, we’ll be in the same place on the same cusps this time next year. Take, for example, my book “The Alignment Doctrine”.

Late this spring it was at twenty-one chapters and over sixty-four thousand words. Lots of charts and checklists. In terms of volume, that’s more than enough. But not much had happened since June. That’s a long time to sit “on the cusp”.

So, why didn’t I just get the darned thing published? Well, I have all kinds of good, and generally valid, excuses. It needs further internal organization. There’s always one more great idea for inclusion. I need to nail down a publisher. And I have a million other obligations. All valid enough, but the fact remains that the project will never get finished if I’m willing to live “on the cusp”.

So as I realized that half a year had escaped me and the book remains only a draft, I asked myself why I was stuck on the cusp, and more to the point, how to get beyond it.

There are, I think, four elements.

First, it’s a matter of priority. For example, to produce an effective vaccine in just ten months is unprecedented, yet the world now has at least four, with many more in late-stage development. Why? Because it really mattered and society gave it the highest priority.

The second is commitment. All the prioritization in the world will yield no result without committing the appropriate attention and resources.

The third is movement. Commitment is converted to outcome one painful step at a time. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been devoting one day per week (plus whatever spare time I can scrounge) to working on the darned thing, and I’ll keep that up until it is printed. To be honest, I’ve come to hate the book and the commitment quite a bit, because they’re getting in the way of so many other fascinating projects.

And that’s what brings me to the fourth element: daylight. For me, at least, commitment won’t take permanent root in the dark. I need to make my commitment out in the open, just like now, so that I can be held accountable. For really important stuff, in order to reduce my risk of backsliding, I need to go public.

So, there it is! It’s out there! Now, how about you? Do you have something really important which has been “on the cusp” far too long? Time to make a public commitment?

I’m open to accountability buddies.