Prioritizing with Mañana

Mañana!

My friend Carlos grew up in Spain and moved to the United States for college. He met a girl, and – as the story goes – here he is, still, thirty years later.

One evening over a big friend-group backyard barbecue, one of our buddies attempted to leave early, listing all the things he had to do that night.

A barrage of “Mañana! Mañana!” came from the group attempting to encourage him to put off his to-do’s and stay with us.

Carlos laughed, “You know you all use that word incorrectly here – right?”

We looked at him, confused.

“What do you mean?” someone eventually uttered. “Mañana means tomorrow. We are saying put it off till tomorrow.”

Put it off till tomorrow.

“Yes, it technically means tomorrow,” he explained. “But as you were just using it, you are implying procrastination – putting something off that one needs to do.”

We looked it up on our phones and, sure enough, our AI-generated friend did the legwork for us and succinctly defined it as follows:

Kind of, but not exactly.

“See,” Carlos said. “Something got lost in translation…

We do use it in a similar way, as we look at our to-do list.

We too will say ‘Mañana.’

But it has a very different meaning where I come from in Spain. When we use the term ‘Mañana’ the meaning is more one of, ‘Don’t do today, what will take care of itself by tomorrow.’

It really has nothing to do with procrastination.

Rather, it is about understanding and appreciating that there are things that you may think or believe YOU personally need to insert yourself into and fix or solve today. But the reality is that, for some of these things, you are best served by letting them play out a bit before you insert yourself into them as the solution:

• Others may solve it.
• Events may occur causing the situation to resolve itself.
• Or, once it evolves a bit, your role or approach to the solution may become clearer.

That’s the true spirit of Mañana.”

Don’t try to solve something today that will take care of itself by tomorrow.

Huh. Well what do you know?

That conversation and new understanding of this term really stuck with me.

I thought about that balance of being proactive while also allowing things to just be in a natural state of unfolding and progressing, resisting the urge to insert myself as a solution. I know that this can be a tough ask, especially for my proactive A > C folks (Predictive Index profile talk).

Take this as an invitation.

Look at your to-do list for the day.

Focus in on those things that really need YOU in this moment, but also consider those things that you may be best served to let play out a bit before inserting yourself as the solution.

Once you try it, you might find that you like it.

If you do, please send me a note and let me know. Carlos will be so pleased.

Mañana, my friends!