Back Up (Into Progress)

You know when they say you should take pause, take stock of your accomplishments, and appreciate where life has taken you?

The entrepreneur culture is so driven to be… driven. More exertion, more effort, an obsession with focus and harshness. It’s an option.

Imagine working that hard, and then pausing to reflect. And instead of finding success, rewards and accomplishments (or, in addition to that success), you find you’ve broken relationships, sacrificed your ideals, lacked integrity, and made more of a mess than anything else.

Imagine that for a second. Is that where you’re headed?

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Now let’s imagine something different.

Let’s pretend you’re at the end, and you’re celebrating a different kind of success, a wholesome success. A lot of good, little of the compromise, just a whole lot of pride to be felt by you and your people, for the progress you’ll have made.

Hold that picture in your mind, pretending you’re in that future state of good. What are you celebrating you’ll have done?

“I’m celebrating I’ve taken care of my relationships.”
“I’ll have made sure I always kept my word, and honoured my commitments.”
“I’ll be happy with the state of my skills. I’ll have achieved mastery and I’ll have pushed my abilities in a broad sense.”
“I’ll have made some money along the way, enough for me and my people to have been comfortable, explored the world a little, and enjoyed each other.”
“I’ll have taken care of people who are in need.”

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This exercise is fractal, in that it’s a formula that works at different scales. “What will I be celebrating at the end of the day? At the end of the week? At the end of the year? By the time I kick the bucket?”

It’s also a backward exercise, from which you can find the real strategies to move forward into.

Keep that promise. Take care of that person in your life. Have that tough conversation. Practice that meaningful skill. Exercise discernment. Create an environment for others to grow in. Take the risk of appearing misunderstood. And yes, sure, take on that ambitious project too, knowing everything else is solid.

Pretty soon, you’ll be backing up to see the full picture. And you’ll see that when you back up, you’ll be looking at a lot of progress.