Embrace Change - Avoid Doldrums
What is your life goal?
Whether your goal is helping end poverty or making a pile of cash, the path can be long and at times, monotonous.
As a sailor, I think of those times of life as the doldrums- a period of time when the wind fails and the sails are luffing. Imagine American sailing ships crossing the vast, open oceans on their mission of trade, diplomacy, and war and hitting a patch of windless ocean in a particular path of ocean. All progress ceases and crew, captain, and passengers are tied together facing their mortality as water and supplies run out. Beyond prayers, ships had little to do but survive until the winds returned. These are the doldrums and they instilled fear in even the most experienced sailors.
I have experienced doldrums in my own life where I felt that all progress had ceased and that my only recourse involved waiting for months or years for the wind to return.
However, time and experience have coalesced to provide me a bit of wisdom that I have found works to keep me out of the doldrums. The journey to your goals may be long and arduous, but I've found that it's important to make constant and well-timed tacks, or turns, here and there to keep your mind engaged by challenging yourself with new and different experiences.
Sticking with the sailing analogy, the doldrums technically lie in a particular latitude around the equator, known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Early in the sailing days, unaware captains would sail their ships blithely into the doldrums and simply wait it out, hoping that winds came before they exhausted food and water. Later, however, mariners realized that they could avoid or at least minimize their time in these regions by merely making course corrections.
In the same way, I have found that my life requires constant course adjustments to keep me out of the doldrums and focused on my overall goal as an entrepreneur in the sharing economy. I initially transferred from the active duty Navy in 2012 and immediately took a month-long trip to Iceland to cycle around the country. In 2013, I visited Buenos Aires, Berlin, Istanbul, Shanghai, Beijing. In 2014, I visited Iceland, Scotland, Spain, and Finland. These trips opened my eyes to the world and help me make connections I never imagined. Now, I'm heading to Switzerland and Paris from May 5- 24. Here I come Blah Blah Car, you better be ready for me. Let's compare how the sharing economy in the EU compares to that in the US.
I always keep my focus on the overall goal, but I have learned to leverage change to hack my personal growth. You can't grow without new environments and there's a danger in entrepreneurship of being locked in one place so long that you lose your edge.
The travel reminds me of my humanity, challenges my perception of the world, ignites a different set of synapses in the brain, and provides incredible insight into the world that often directly translates into being a better entrepreneur.
After a few years of travel, the brain starts to crave that change and it's one addiction worth satisfying.
So trim the sails, tack over and leverage change to hack your personal growth to be the best entrepreneur you can be
https://theskeletonkeydispatch.blogspot.com
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