Just Stick to Your Thing

It's so easy to get distracted. I wrote about this in my "real " newsletter this past Sunday, but I'm still thinking about it from my day job perspective. It's because when I see people thrashing around and I compare that to people who are thriving, the thriving ones demonstrate to me a mistake I was making in my own world.

Like a lot of people, I chased "it." I chased trying to figure out what "that thing" I had to do was that would get me successful. "What you're doing isn't really giving you what you want, now, is it? So clearly, go do that NEW thing." Right? You've felt this. No? Just me?

It's a Trap!

When you search for "that new thing," it means you're abandoning "that thing you do." Guess what got you to where you are? That thing you do. Sure, maybe you have to upgrade parts of it, but what I'm seeing more and more when I look at people who are flailing versus people who are thriving is that people who are thriving change out a few parts; people who thrash around try something utterly new.

Instead of a slight adjustment, flailers land the plane, set a new course, and take off again. New direction. New everything. This time, I'll probably get there, because it's new. It must have been the destination that was wrong, or the approach or the...

None of it's true. It's a trap. Stop starting from scratch.

I'm Writing This for Me

But you can read along.

Namedrop incoming: Years ago, I confessed to Seth Godin that on more than one occasion, I threw away at least 100 pages of a book I was trying to write. But like, many times. Not once. So hundreds of pages.

"Are you crazy?" He asked. "That could've been reworked into something else."

Pshaw, was my reply. Because it was ALL wrong. I couldn't have reworked my thing. I had to start new.

This is so dumb. What a horrible choice.

I spent decades starting over. And guess how far I got? It's like playing Super Mario Bros but only knowing how to do World 1-1, 1-2, and maybe 1-3.

Meaning, I kept thinking, "It's this thing I'm doing that is wrong, and it's totally all wrong, and everything is bad, and I need to start over again from nothing."

Start Somewhere. Work That. Keep Growing From That Spot.

This is the way.

If you're excited by Jesse Cole or Johnny Earle or the people I love to share through my day to day, guess what they all do? They start somewhere. Jesse knew he wanted to run a baseball team. Johnny knew he wanted to own every dimension of a brand. They started, they built, they made mistakes, they built more. From a base.

That's the thing.

You can do this with your job, your life, your fitness efforts.

Flailure is the Enemy

(You read that right. FLAILure. I thought I coined that, by the way, but of course not. All clever ideas are "invented" thousands of times.)

Flailure (as I'm using it) is when you worry that you're going to screw up, or you screw up, and instead of just adjusting course a little bit, you go full 90 degree angle, left turn, hit the gas, let's crash through that fence mode.

Do the thing you do. Stop resetting. Stop rushing to the next, to the new, to the "this might fix everything."

Again. I wrote this all for me. I'm mad at myself. But maybe you know how I feel?

Chris...