There’s something blinding about being intensely drawn toward a goal or dream, especially when it involves huge waves of positive reinforcement and learning.
Sometimes we get so infatuated with a novel path or idea that we focus entirely on the happy path and don’t plan for failure.
But when the highs turn to lows, and the inevitable unexpected happens, how does our growth trajectory handle this? Does it go completely stagnant?
How do we take advantage of the highs, but be prepared for the lows?
In other words, how do we build a resilient vehicle for growth?
Any road worth traveling will test all of your failure modes until you break or a better path reveals itself. Always be prepared for both of these things.
Ride The Waves When They Come
Sometimes we just get hit with positive uplifting waves that make forward progress feel effortless.
I felt this immensely when I started my first company.
When you unlock the ability to own something completely, it turns out you feel empowered beyond belief. There is no one but yourself holding you back from success.
Much of the time, it’s a positive feedback loop. You put a shit load of work in, and get positive, reinforcing feedback that makes you continue to work really hard.
With this, comes a hyper-focus on the happy path and an undying will to keep going.
But, of course, building a company, like most other things in life, has a ton of ups and downs. And when we inevitably run out of forward momentum, sometimes our engines aren’t tuned to handle the uphill battle we have ahead.
Keep Your Vehicle’s Velocity Internally-Driven
Whatever the vehicle it is you’re trying to move forward — a company, your physical health, financial stability, a general sense of well-being — it’s composed of a lot of intertwined systems.
Most of these systems are completely under your control. Of course, there are environmental factors that can help us or hinder us along the way.
Every now and then maybe we have a stretch of pleasant downhill cruising. A spurt of motivation. A round of fundraising.
But at the end of the day, we want our vehicle to continue making forward progress, regardless of any unforeseen circumstances in the road ahead of us.
This is why we tune our engine. We install airbags. We fuel up before we actually need to.
Because even though you’re feeling amazing today, you never know when you’ll get a flat tire.
When your motivation is intrinsic, it doesn’t matter what happens externally. Any external factor, no matter how good, or bad, won’t shake you.
The Big Mistake With My Newsletter
My ultimate goal for this newsletter is to help others build their own unstoppable vehicles for growth across every aspect of their lives.
In the first few months of writing this, it honestly felt somewhat effortless. I enjoy writing. I enjoy helping others reach their full potential. It seemed like a perfect outlet for me.
But as with anything, life “got in the way”. In other words, I just didn’t make these newsletters a priority.
Had I truly subconsciously deprioritized this beautiful avenue for personal growth?
Of course not. I just didn’t have the systems in place to keep this vehicle chugging.
So from this week forward, let it be known that Circadian Growth is a weekly Newsletter to help everyone live the fullest, most meaningful life possible.
In about 6 seconds, I just created a system to keep myself investing in a meaningful outlet of my life.
Dang. If it’s so easy, why is it so difficult sometimes?
Make The Space
Now, I hope that making a commitment to making this newsletter weekly—in a newsletter post—demonstrates my point enough.
It wasn’t difficult. It definitely wasn’t complicated. I just needed the urgency to take action.
And usually, that’s the rate-limiting step toward forward progress.
So how do you foster this sort of urgency to take action?
It starts with making the mental space for yourself to realize that you’re getting in the way of your own progress.
If you can be intentional about finding that one tiny step you can take that forces you to take more accountability and tip that first domino, you’ll find a resiliency in yourself that you’d never expect.
And it all starts with that moment when you take the time to think.
Take a second. Be deliberate.
What are the top 3 things you really want to succeed, achieve, or grow in?
What’s one thing you can do today to make yourself take more action and accountability toward growth in each of those — not just today, but every day?
Don’t just ask yourself once — make it continuous. Put it on your calendar.
Your ability to adapt and continue making progress toward the things you love will astound you.
This was originally published on my weekly newsletter Circadian Growth