This year let’s stop choosing what we pursue based on how hard it is, but on whether or not it’s worth it.  Let’s stop jumping from thing to thing until something takes off and let’s focus on what needs to be done to accomplish what we’re trying to do—and to do it to the best of our ability.  No one here needs to be told that life is hard at times, but we also need to stop thinking all we do needs to be hard.  We have to reframe how we look at work, purpose, and effort.  Of course we like the idea of getting the most for the least amount of effort but life doesn’t work like that.  Nothing truly great came from sitting on our asses and settling for what came our way.  But it is also true that nothing truly great came from obsessing over an outcome and never letting go of it like an unrelenting drive to work 24/7.  In both scenarios we burn out and miss the point.  Let’s figure out our pursuits based on what clicks for us.  On what makes sense for us.  What I will say is that we can’t operate on whims, constantly shifting goals and tracks right in the middle of something else.  Nothing gets done that way.  We also can’t have such a hard focus on making things right and doing them at the right time that we paralyze ourselves in the details.

Challenging things aren’t always fun but if we are really honest with ourselves, neither are the easy things.  Just because we can mark something off of our list doesn’t mean that we accomplished something worthwhile.  The point isn’t to complete the list, it’s to design a life that has no list.  That flows and naturally guides us to what we need to do next.  I understand that sometimes even that isn’t fun because even in flow we can find ourselves in some pretty tough situations.  Humans have a habit of misjudging things, though.  What we think will be hard often proves to be simpler than we made it out to be and those things we thought we’d mark off the list in no time turn out to be far more complex.  That is the nature of life.  So if we tend to be a little wonky in judging the difficulty level of something, then we have no choice but to start looking at the value in expending our energy on it.  It becomes less about how challenging it is, and more about what needs to be done to close the gap to accomplish the goal. The pursuit always needs to be the goal, not the effort it takes to get it.  If we want something, let that be the driving factor. Even then life can still throw us for a loop but that doesn’t mean give up.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve felt the shift in my direction of thought and purpose.  I have these goals, these things I want to do and I plan it out every year—and in this time, I’ve accomplished very little of what I set out to do.  It’s something that I actually do carry shame and fear about because these goals are near and dear to me, it’s not like I’m randomly picking something.  These are important pursuits for me. I can say that I’m proud I’ve still stuck with them because I can see where some of the effort I’ve put in over this time has started to pay off.  But if I had simply given up and stopped doing what I wanted because it wasn’t happening, then I wouldn’t be here now.  Is it where I want to be?  Not quite, but I’m a hell of a lot closer than I was.  Sometimes we have to learn to refine and define our efforts better instead of completely shifting course.  We have to stick with what our gut tells us—we are drawn in that direction for a reason.  I’m not saying to not use discernment and trust that when something isn’t working despite our efforts that we need to give it up—that may be true, we may have to stop something we thought we really wanted.  But I am saying to work with enough clarity to evaluate our choices and understand the drive behind starting something.  Go for it if that is what calls us—we will find a way to get it done.