Going Slo-mo, Working on Synergy
If you visit my profile, you may notice that the "money-goal" box is blank.
I used to have goals in there. I erased them and edited my bio to include a reminder to myself: I do better when I pay attention to the directions I am going and the pathways I walk rather than laying down the S.M.A.R.T. goals I have to execute.
I know, I know. That's heretical; not part of the Hustler canon.
The thing is, when I have a S.M.A.R.T. goal, when I have set deadlines and a very clear idea of what I want a thing to look like at the end of it all, it WILL get done, within whatever (inane and often insane) time-frame I set and usually under-budget, even.
The problem is, that's the ONLY thing that will get done...and nothing else.
Real goals throw me into hyper-focus and that can be a very bad thing for me and for the people around me. I go into lock-down and the world gets way narrow.
Everything except what makes the goal real turns into an obstacle, a pitfall, a wrong move, a time-waster or something inconsequential. It is a very easy thing to suss out incipient problems and slam on through obstacles and so on and so forth...as long as you're on that path to that goal.
In the past when I've conquered mountains, I've stood on my little peak and looked out over the "Promised Land," feeling all cool and everything.
Every time that happened, all I saw in front of me were other, higher mountains to climb. When I looked behind me, all I saw was the devastation of other, sometimes more important things, left to fend for themselves and in various states of disarray, just sort of abjectly falling apart.
My heart always ended up feeling like a shriveled thing.
I decided that stupid mountain-climber metaphor is not mine. It costs too much.
Lately I've been remembering an old Taoist teaching story about a young man watching an old man swim across a river. The young man watches as the old dude dives into a fast-moving, raging river from the opposite bank. The old guy disappears under the water.
Every once in a while the young man can see the old guy surface and then disappear again under the torrent. The old guy keeps on coming. Every time the dude surfaces, he's closer to the young man's side of the river.
And then, after a while, there the old guy is, standing on the bank, as calm as you please.
So, the young guy asks, "How did you DO that?"
The old man grins and says, "Oh, that's nothing. I just follow the water. When the water goes up, I go up. When the water goes down, I go down. It works."
When you do a dream as a side-gig, it really is a lot like crossing a river in full flow. So many things are happening all around you that you do have to pay attention to what the water is doing.
It's slow. You get there.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Hope yours is going well. See ya!
-- Netta
Recent Comments
23
No matter if it is slow if you get there eventually. That's my motto. I do have some financial goals in my boxes but what exactly that will be and when, no one knows. I'm enjoying the process and do not worry about anything.
Thanks for the post, Netta.
Lenka, that's real. Enjoying the process is a very good thing. Thanks for the comment.
-- Netta
Success doesn't need to come with sacrifice. Does that come close ?
Stopping to enjoy the scenery whilst on the journey, doesn't seem to cut it, it's too nicey, nicey.
If there are too many irons in the fire, then just get a bigger fire.
Hmm, I'll let it simmer a while.
Thanks Netta.
Twack, you are beautiful!
It is a truth that mountain-climbing does have its pleasures as well.
-- Netta
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The important thing is that you do what you have to do at your own pace. Some people need to set a financial goal to have a kind of ink in order to follow a specific path to get there. But other people like you don't need that to motivate yourself, and that's great too. So keep taking the time you need to make your way and you will get there with serenity.
Ingrid
Thanks, Ingrid....
-- Netta