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Send it already

Sending things today is one of the hardest things to do.

Every time you consider putting your hand up in class, hit the send button on email or hit the “order” button online, you never know how it’s going to turn out.  Will your message be accepted? Will people judge your mistakes?  Will they like the gift you send?

On the other hand, there’s also liberation in just sending it already. You can move on to the next task. Often times people don’t care anyways. And you can stop pouring over small details that don’t really matter.  Or details that you can’t control.

A few weeks ago, I was sending a small but important gift to someone using an online retailer. I wanted to make a good impression so spent time making sure the message was good. After spending more time on the message (and figuring out the delivery time) than I’d ever like to admit, the website completely messed it up anyways. Not only did the message have typos but it also wasn’t even the version message I sent and it didn’t arrive until the next day.  After all that time planning, I had no control over what happened.  Fortunately, the mistakes didn’t make a difference in the end.

Likewise, I also recently sent an email at work. I spent over 30 minutes on an email that wasn’t even important but that went to someone who I needed to do well for.  So after pouring over my message for over an hour and proudly hitting the send button on a well-crafted, thorough yet concise email, I came to find that the person never even read it. I was in shock.

More often than not, we don’t know how people are going to respond so we have to put our best foot forward.   And I’m glad I did in both cases above.  On the other hand, time is limited, our To-do lists today are longer than ever, and spending life hiding in the corner afraid of criticism is not the best of your time, no matter what your position at a company is.  Especially when it’s a situation where it’s the thought (not the words) that counts.

Sometimes you just have to send it already. Whether send the email at work, submitting your application to a program, or sending a gift online . Because none of your effort matters until you hit send.

So what are you waiting for? Hit send. I just did.