You have this grand idea or huge dream that you’ve spent 5 or more years thinking about and another 2 to 5 yrs planning. You get to the action part and feel an overwhelming sensation of gratification. You haven’t done anything outside of choosing to start but hey you are feeling great. Technically, this feeling has been 7 years or more in the making so the joy is understandable. You are fully invested in this.
You stick with the action. You seem to be making progress but not as much as you think you should given the effort you’ve been putting in. You continue to do what you’ve committed to while looking around to see if it is something you are doing wrong. Are you messing up? Are you overlooking something? Is there a better way? Maybe. Most likely. Certainly. When you looking around you will not only find these answers but you’ll also find new options. You’ll see them but you’ve given so much effort and energy to the original idea it’s hard to give it a real look.
This dilemma is caused by time and memory. You feel because of the time you’ve given to an idea it is counterproductive to jump to another. Yes, energy and effort matter but it is time that is usually the reasoning for staying with a choice that may not be the best for you. The thing is we don’t remember effort and energy. We look back at completed tasks and may feel good about it but there is no recollection of the energy and effort it took. We just know there was some involved. This is a good way to convince yourself to do hard things you don’t want to do. Get it done. You will not remember how hard you had to work but you’ll know you did.
Time is a quick calculation. No memory is required. A person wants to be a lawyer at the age of 14 and becomes one at 25, 11 years is the time the dream has existed. 4 years of getting good grades in high school to get into a good college. 4 years of getting even better grades in undergrad as a pre-law student to get into law school. 3 more years of law school and passing the bar to become a lawyer. How much work was that? No clue. A lot is a good answer.
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Pivoting in any aspect of life is difficult. You believed at one time what you are doing was a great idea. You spent time thinking about the pros and cons but right now it’s no longer the best idea you’ve ever thought of. It is okay to pivot. You’ve looked around attempting to become better at what you are doing and some other options have come to your attention. You should give them a real look. Does it make more sense to pursue that instead? Let’s take the scenario of an aspiring real estate mogul with a family to take care of. They finally come into a lump sum of money. Let’s say $100,000. They can purchase a multifamily building for 1 million dollars with 10% down. They can also use those funds to play the stock market with safe high yielding maneuvers.
The million-dollar property is what they’ve always wanted but the building requires maintenance, as do the tenants. Taxes on that million-dollar building take a nice bite of the yearly profit and that is with 100% occupancy. Not the best situation for a person with a family. The stock market has the potential to turn that 100k into another 100k of profit yearly. (I’m not giving out that info here but yes it’s doable.) They never wanted to be a stock market guru. They never saw themselves investing in other people’s business success but here is this opportunity. The opportunity is to wait a year and have that 100k create another and use that to buy a million-dollar building or wait 2 years and get a 2 million dollar building with 200k creating 200k yearly. You get the idea. This is a pivot that they are fighting with but the logic outweighs the heart here and probably does in your situation also.
In closing, don’t be afraid to pivot. Both in professional and private life, a pivot can be difficult. The thing is a pivot can lead to better things than what you first planned. A better relationship. A more satisfying job. A healthier bank account. A happier life. Imagine telling yourself no to these opportunities because of time spent chasing something else. You wouldn’t, right?
The issue is we do. A simple change of course can lead to a smoother road and a better destination. Don’t stay on that gravel road when you know there is a paved highway you can take. The tanks of gas and time you’ve spent on that road are gone but there is plenty more driving to do. It may be time to pivot.
Food for thought…You do the dishes.
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