Why I Stopped Focusing on Incremental Improvements

The Secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. - Socrates

I have nothing against being iterative, or making incremental improvements. In fact, when introducing something new, setting yourself up for big returns from small efforts is probably the best way to stick with a new routine or habit.

But at some point, it’s no longer new.
Your routine is a rut; your habit, a crutch.
And your baby steps at improvement aren’t doing jack. 

You can’t iterate yourself out of a plateau, but you’re likely to stay there unless you get seriously uncomfortable with where you are and how little return you’re getting from those tiny efforts.

One of the most inspiring things about many of my clients is that, from the beginning, they thought big and aimed for goals that scared the crap out of them any time they stopped long enough to think the “what if” of what it would be like once they accomplished it. They went for the moon. 

Metaphorically, at some point, I came to realize that no amount of iteration will move me from playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Carnegie Hall. If Carnegie Hall is where I wanted to be, then I needed to be very deliberate about doing the things people do to get to Carnegie Hall. The gulf between my efforts and thought process, and theirs, was impressive.

And that’s when I decided to go for my moon shot. I had a specific goal in mind for a while, but I was deeply uncomfortable with the plateau looking back at me when I examined where my baby steps were getting me.

I took a look at where I wanted to be, who was there before me (if anyone), and what it is that they were doing. Clearly, iteration was not going to get me there. I needed to let go of where I started and build something new, with the end in mind. 

And that's the rub. Letting go of where we started means letting go of where we are now. Instead, we have to be wholly focused, critical, and deliberative of whether every aspect of what we’re doing is aligned with that moon shot… is aligned with the end in mind. 

This is the tectonic shift that allows entrepreneurs, startups, and stagnant or fading companies to catapult from near obscurity into the next stratosphere. This is what makes so many of my clients incredible to work with. 

Have you decided to go for your moon shot?

Tomorrow is now. – Eleanor Roosevelt