We have the tendency to think that where we are at right now is where we will be for the rest of our lives. But we are never permanently stuck. Sure, today may be a puzzle for us.
We can feel like a skier that is stuck in a snowbank.
Discouragement can make us feel like giving up. We feel panic or a feeling of panic or despair well up within us.
My dad was an insurance guy. He was a claims adjustor and an underwriter. His job was to ascertain risk and put a number to it. In other words, he would ask, “How risky is it really?”
He would travel to a building that was going to be insured. After examining it, he would report how much of a risk the building would be to insure. Were their fire hazards? Was the foundation sound? Were there any safety issues?
He would report to the insurance company and the customer. If the client made the improvements, they would save money. But if they took no action, it could cost the client more. Perhaps the insurance company would deem the property uninsurable.
We face risks every day. However, there are instances when we create a bigger risk by doing nothing.
“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
A few years ago, I drew a cartoon about a boy that missed a homework deadline. He concluded he needed homework insurance. But the real problem is that he didn’t take the action needed to complete the assignment.
Perhaps he was distracted by something he considered more fun. Or he may have shunned his homework because he feared the risk of getting a bad grade. Regardless, his inaction insured that he would get a bad grade on the assignment. There are many ways we indulge in self-sabotage, isn’t there?
Sometimes, it is risky to take action. But may we have the discernment to realize when it is riskier to take no action. I don’t know if the JFK quote was about the space program. Perhaps it was. After all, sending astronauts to the moon was a very risky endeavor. And the president cast the vision when few thought it was possible.
As a result, the rewards outweighed the risks. But we didn’t know that until a country took the risk, did we? Comfortable inaction costs us much. It is better to take a risk. The cost of reaching a goal is far better than doing nothing.
When we start a project, we are excited about the possibilities. Something new can give us a jolt of adrenaline and give us a new passion for the days ahead. But how do we keep our interest strong when we are in the middle of a tough, drawn-out slough?
“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.”
Horace Walpole
This time of year, high school seniors are well into “senioritis.” They can see that the end is in sight, but the distance between March and May feels like a million miles away. We have all been there. I was probably thinking about this when I wrote this post on postponing school for lack of interest.
How do you keep your interest strong when a project takes longer than the enthusiasm it initially produced?
In the book The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller, the author states that the reason many projects fail is that we don’t focus our energy on the one big goal that matters.
Distractions can take us off course very quickly. The tyranny of urgent matters gets in the way of the big goal that is important but doesn’t seem as urgent when the result is months out.
Focus on the one big goal and visualize what it will be like when we hit that goal.
Why is this project or goal so important? What results will it bring when it is achieved? When we achieve it, how will it make us feel?
We can get bogged down in the how of a goal and lose sight of the reason we started it in the first place. In Start with Why, Simon Sinek reminds us that when we know why we are doing something, it is tremendously motivational.
Every long-term project has a messy middle. We get excited at the beginning and rejoice when the goal is achieved. But in the middle are many obstacles, detours, and frustrations. If it was easy, someone else would have done it already, right?
Any worthy project will have a messy middle. We can acknowledge we are there, focus on the goal and remember the why. It can get us through challenging times.
Today may be messy. We may be distracted for a moment. But keep going! Whether we have senioritis, a cumbersome project, or a life stage that seems to drag on forever, we can keep motivated and keep moving towards a worthy goal.
When we make our plans, we like to think that the path we have laid out is the only correct one. But when we have trouble plotting that path, it can spin us into an infinite loop of analysis paralysis. We tend to forget that there are many ways to move forward.
Frequently, there is more than one way to make progress. And it is better to move than to sit still. Yet the fear of getting the journey wrong can stop us. It did for me several years ago. I learned that fear is not motivational. It just freezes us in our tracks.
There are times when it is better to stand still. When we are lost, it is better to stay put while someone attempts to find us. That is good advice when we are lost in a wilderness and we know someone is looking for us.
If we have no clue of what “forward” is, then perhaps it is best to wait until we have a sense of what our true north is. However, if we are called to do something, and we know the general path, It is best to get moving.
Our plans of how we get there may change. But if we have a destination, detours and unforeseen roadblocks are okay. After all, a GPS or map app usually has two or three ways to get to a destination, does it not? If we know where we are going, an alternate route will get us there too!
It’s the difference between strategy and tactics. Our strategy may be solid while our tactics need to change with new circumstances. Even if we have gone a similar path before, new data and challenges may force us to readjust our path.
There are many ways to move forward. But standing still when we should go isn’t very helpful.
This morning, I woke up to I Hope You Dance running through my head. It is the perfect song for the start of a new year.
May you have a blessed 2022!