Start cutting.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

There’s an old carpenter’s saying: “Measure twice, cut once.” It basically means that you should double-check your measurements before cutting a piece of wood because once it’s cut, it’s cut.

That’s great advice if you’re dealing with a static plan, like building a staircase, but terrible advice for dealing with the dynamic world. Instead, find a problem that needs fixing, or an idea or cause that inspires you, and just start cutting.

Yes, measure before you begin, but you don’t have to obsess over it because the future is unknowable and immeasurable. Passion is what will move you and others forward, not plans. And along the way, circumstances will conspire to sustain you, just like what happened to Thor Heyerdahl, the protagonist in the film Kon-Tiki.

Heyerdahl set sail on a balsa wood raft from South America to the Pacific Islands to prove that Polynesia was populated with humans from Peru. And once he set his idea in motion, all sorts of unexpected factors cooperated with him.

The balsa wood expanded in the water and bit into the hemp ropes creating a tight seal, resistant to the stresses of the ocean waves. Every morning edible flying fish would land on the raft, providing nourishment for the challenging day ahead.

Yes, Thor measured and made a raft. But then he stopped measuring and made an act of faith. One that took him 4,300 miles in 101 days, and made his idea a reality.

Do you have faith? Is there something that you really want to do with your life? Then for heaven’s sake, stop the obsessive measuring and start cutting. Because despite what Jerry Ragovoy wrote and the Rolling Stones popularized in 1964, time is not on your side.

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Stay passionate!