I have never published my stream of consciousness writings before. Until now.
This is a raw example of how I write. I will have a topic—in this case “process focused. Not outcome focused—and begin writing about that topic and I will start bouncing all over the place. Not staying on topic.
This time I got to 2000 words in and my stream of consciousness asked me if I should not go back and edit this. My first thought was “bad idea David” because it isn’t a coherent structure. It’s basically me rambling like a crotchety old man. But then I realized there might be some good ideas in here for someone. Further it shows my process and how I ask myself questions in order to explore ideas.
So I decided to keep it all in. I did fix a few minor grammar errors but all in all it is untouched. My brain spilled out on paper.
Process Focused. Not Outcome Focused.
Focus on the process. Make and do small improvements everyday. Eat that elephant. The outcome will manifest itself. No reason to force an outcome. Make goals only for targets. Aim for the target. And get to work.
Focus on the process. There are no finish lines in life. The only finish line is death. But it is only for one person.
It’s about the journey not the destination. We hear this all the time but what does it mean? What it means to me is the process is difficult. But that is the rewarding part. It’s the grind. And as I write this I know a big motivator for me is competition. Because I know if I don’t wake up early to write this blog, someone else will. Or in my circle of friends and family I know that none of them write so I have an ability that they don’t have.
Abilities. It seems like having abilities is like having super powers. Like the ability to speak multiple languages or the ability to play an instrument or the ability to start businesses. These are all abilities. And maybe a fulfilling life is accumulating abilities. That is what I am doing right now. I am taking the time to learn chess, the guitar and Spanish. Along with learning about entrepreneurship. And then eventually I want to start a business. And what better business than the productivity software that has been such a huge part of my process.
But this blog post is about the process. And I really like saying that there is no finish line. And that is the truth. At no point is someone waiting for you to hand you a trophy when a goal is reached. Awards and accolades are apart of society, but all these do is reinforce and recognize the journey. The hundreds of hours that were put into something.
It is never done. It is never good enough. Too often I see people “resting on their laurels.” They feel what they have accomplished is enough and the process of learning new things is over. I recognize this when people do at least these two things: Don’t offer or come up with anything new. They have done and said the same thing over and over again. Not seemly getting any better but gradually getting a bit worse over time. And second, when I never hear someone say I don’t know. Or ask what someone else thinks. The possibility of being wrong or looking dumb is too strong for these people and they avoid it at all costs. Again, what they have accomplished in life is their badge of honor and they are not the ones that have to ask the questions anymore.
Enjoy the journey. People use the top of the mountain as the reason for hiking it. But that is just another finish line. The imaginary line that people use to measure or create a victory. I made it to the top. Therefore I did it. But what if you don’t make it to the top? What if you come second or third? Was there no journey? Of course not. A process was still undertaken. A journey took place. And it was a customized personal journey. Just because they didn’t reach a certain place or obtain a certain score doesn’t take the journey away from them. But I would say that not striving for high scores or difficult journeys will not allow you to have theses wonderful journeys that I am talking about in this writing. Let’s use a real world example of weight loss.
It is no surprise that people are the biggest they have ever been. According to the CDC in the year 1999-2000 the obesity prevalence was 30.5%. In 2017-2018 that same number grew to 42.2%. But in my observation, when I am out in the wild, it seems more like 60-80%. Like for every four people I see three of them are going to show signs of increased weight from a homeostatic set point (aka flat stomach). So what is going on here? What is going on is lazy physics. In nature. Objects react to other objects as little as possible to achieve a desired effect. For example, a seed doesn’t work any harder than what is required to turn form seed to sprout. And it is the same thing for humans. We all need to eat. But it is harder to stop eating than it is to eat. Hence the ever expanding waistlines. So let’s bring this back down to earth. Reducing the amount of food we consume is the journey. And the proverbial finish line is a flat stomach. But we need to be in the race in order to even attempt to reach the finish line. And the race or journey needs to have challenges. If you are constantly eating donuts and lasagna and drinking soda and beer, you are not in the race. Because you don’t want to have any hint of difficulty regarding eating. And incredibly, for me its actually harder to eat that stuff then to not eat it.
What is your goal/finish line/mountain top? I have heard this time and again. What do you want? And think big. If you aim for the stars and miss you might still hit a planet. I wonder if this is similar to The Secret. Where you use the power of association to reach goals. If you want to be rich you start doing things that rich people will do or have. An example might be writing your future self a one million dollar check. But that is everyones goal. Have wealth and financial freedom. If that is the case why isn’t everyone rich? I think that is what people want but then they don’t know how to go about getting it. Instead of new business should I be calling it get rich? Is saying it’s all about the journey a copout? Because I am not rich I say things like its all about the process—or—enjoy the process to cover up the fact that I haven’t made money.
I remember Scott Adams talking about being systems oriented and not goal oriented. He is rich. Maybe I should listen to him instead of trying to give out advice.
This should be what this writing is about. About the fact that who am I do dole out advice. I think a lot of rich people would agree that it is better to be rich. It is better to have money. Should I turn all my focus to that? When they were talking about bitcoin last night I was instantly developing a story in defense of me not investing in it. The story was something like “I don’t gamble”—or—“I am not that type of person.” But I am the type of person who wants wealth so should I be looking into that instead of ignoring it? I suppose I am making money the only way I know how. Which is not doing too many things that actually end up growing my bank account. I am very good at consuming information. But I am not very good at executing on that information. But what I have learned at Csusb has been extremely valuable. And I am the closest I have ever been at actually getting something going. And what I am learning is valuable information.
Have systems not goals. I suppose I have an okay system in place. My system is comprised of educating myself. But it’s not comprised of much money generation. And the right kind of money generation. I could get a job and make 65,000 a year to start. But that would mean I would be working an additional 40-50 hours per week and I would not have the time to make any more money. So just having a job is not a way to make money. If I was making 200k plus at that job that would be a different story. As long as that job didn’t require risk with my life and or 50+ hours per week. What I believe is the right type of money is starting projects that will allow me to get into flow and have a potential to earn money within a few months. And they would have to be based on my current skill level. I can’t start learning to coding in order to start a software company. Or do I? If something was directly involved in me potentially making money then it is something worth while.
I am proposing productivity software. But then again, who am I do give out advise. What have I done that would give me the credibility to give out advice. Then I need to do that. I need to create the credibility. And how do I do that… with money.
It’s about continuing in the face of uncertainty. Continuing in the face of setbacks. Of hardship. It’s about pressing on. But it’s important to quit isn’t it? I have struggled with the idea that it’s important to push through. To finish what you started. I think about my gym. I suppose me selling it was me finishing it. It could be looked at though I gave up. I quit. I threw in the towel. But thinking back to the decision to close down, I remember the feeling of being done. I started a gym, I didn’t execute the idea effectively, and so I was done. I wasn’t making money. I didn’t have the sales to get me pumped and excited about the business. That is so important. To have the sales to provide the fuel to continue. To persevere.
The question that I have then is: is there a difference between quitting and stopping. When I sold the gym did I quit or did I stop? I wonder if there is a difference. I believe there is but it’s a fine line. Maybe I can scale it back to think of example… I was watching the walking dead. I would wait until the entire season came out on Netflix and I would binge watch the entire season. This last season finally came out and I watched the first episode. And stopped after that. My narrative is saying I’m not going to continue this tradition because I don’t care for the show anymore and I can think of better things to do with my time. Did I quit or stop? Or another example that I have experienced was me trying to learn Spanish. My first experience learning Spanish was in high school. And I am now forty-one. Ever since high school I have attempted and quit Spanish. Now I can say that I quit. Multiple times. Because I know that spending time to learn Spanish is time well spent. Especially living in southern California where Spanish is all over the place. And I can say I quit because it just too difficult. I gave up. If I stuck with it I would know Spanish by now. But going back to the gym. I have the confidence to say it was not a well run business. Maybe I could have pushed through. Put in the hours. Put in the money. And maybe it would have been a success. But that is a big maybe. So what if I quit anyway. Call it quitting or stopping. Stop is a synonym to quit. It’s just that the work quit has that negative connotation.
I am wondering if I should leave this. It would be an example of stream of consciousness. First draft. It would be tough to read for sure. But maybe I can go through it and clean it up just a bit. It might be a good thing to leave it.
If you made it here good for you! You are not a quitter!
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