Whenever I want to accomplish something in life or when I want something to happen, I find it incredibly irksome if someone says "it's not meant to be just yet" or "it will happen at the right time". Recently I realized a reason I find hearing this particularly frustrating: because annoyingly... it's right.
When we achieve our goals, it's the culmination of all our experiences. Everything we went through, everything we learned, in some way went towards accomplishing those goals. Sometimes I will look at something I'm doing and think how if I was doing it even just a few years ago, I may not have coped. Sometimes I'll look at something I'm doing now and realize it actually would have been impossible a few years ago to do it, I didn't have what I needed.
It's amazing when I look back at something I couldn't wait to happen, something where every moment it hadn't happened felt disappointing, and I think about all the lessons I learned during that time and how having that wisdom ended up making the experience - when it finally did happen - that much better.
A really good example is with people. There are actors I have met in the past few weeks whose work I enjoy immensely. Having this admiration for their work allowed me to have fun conversations and make a genuine connection with them. However, I only discovered them and their work in the last few years. Had I met these people on some of my previous trips to America, I probably wouldn't have connected with them in the way I ultimately did.
One final example - I had the good fortune 5 years ago to watch an animation voice-over session being recorded at Nickelodeon. Two voice actors were due to record that day but only one was there, as the other was sick. I had an incredible time meeting the one actor who was there and it was a brilliant day. What about that second actor? It was a shame, yes, but I didn't know the actor for much back then, I'd watched a bunch of episodes of another show he was in. Yet since that day, I've watched the rest of that show, found out he is related to people I recognize from England AND watched an iconic episode of a popular sitcom that he guest-starred in that's one of the funniest half hours of television I've ever watched. When I didn't meet him before, it really was a case of “it just wasn't meant to be". But now, when I meet him (and that is a when, not an if) I am going to be so ready for it compared to the time before, it will be the right time.