Beginning with Dirty Dishes: Reflections on Entrepreneurial and Collective Angst
journaling it out feels good.
When we are stressed or going through a rough patch, even the smallest thing seems insurmountable. A stack of dirty dishes appears like a literal mountain… and scaling mountains seems terrible. Opening the mail means confrontation… and ugh, enough of the confrontation already! This is why we—me, specifically—have/has to stay focused on the present, at least, in times like these.
It does not mean there cannot exist an awareness about the future, but a fixation on the future from the standpoint of a fixation on regret (the past) does zero favors. It's a tug of war. And guess where you ultimately end up, typically, in a tug of war? Heaving right back into the center, somewhere—in the present.
I talk a lot about transformation. Frankly, it’s an area I have been fascinated by for years. The concept specifically of having a fixed identity while being able to evolve fascinates me (akin to the caterpillar morphing into a beautiful butterfly). But now, I am considering our humanity— how this can be dangerous too. Think about what we are seeing today with the wars, division, and hate, but also the rapid acceleration of tech. Could this be generating more resistance, perhaps that tug-of-war I spoke about earlier?
People are tugging on problems and concepts constantly from the past all the while others race to the future, paying no mind to what’s in the rearview mirror. How about planting our feet into “right now”? What happened and what’s next? I wonder if this friction relates to survival times. Lately, I have felt like I am in survival mode as I navigate an overwhelming number of tasks in my business: launching two new programs, getting more consistent with my content, being a better leader to my team, and finding solutions for the occasional cash flow crunch. But I think my brain is also habituated to this mode—it fears comfortability, and when I am comfortable, my brain races right into it.
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