The shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line:
Straight Line!
The longest distance from point A to point B is a never-ending circle around point B:
Not so straight...
Why do we end up going in circles around point B when we should go straight to it?
Let me explain.
Often time I find myself, and I see others, not moving straight forward toward their goal. We end up doing other stuff that makes us move laterally to our goal, without making any real progress.
Examples:
- Buying a workout book when our goal is to lose weight
- Reading a blog about how to meet women instead of approaching a woman and meeting her
- Tweaking the design of a website rather than creating a product to sell
I have been guilty of all of these at some point or another.
I see it a lot in the “dating advice” world, men do stuff to get “better with women” that has absolutely nothing to do with actually meeting a woman. If you are great with women, but you aren’t meeting any women, are you really great with women?
If you are planning out your diet, are you really losing weight? If you are building a commercial website, are you really making money?
I am in a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, but is what I am doing actually accomplishing anything? I have been spending most of my stirfry time (free time to work on my personal projects) on OTV.
I enjoy OTV, it feels good to do it, and I am learning about web design, syndication, podcasting, entertainment, and other things that could eventually be applied to projects that will make me money, but they aren’t right now.
From an entrepreneurial sense, I am moving no closer to point B from point A, though I am doing a whole lot of stuff. I am shuffling around, working on this and that, but am not any closer to point B in any way that matters.
Point B, by the way, is making enough money to thrive from active and passive internet sources.
I spent stirfry weekend focusing on website design, and have been spending what tiny amount of free time I have had since then (about 5 minutes) looking into this as well.
I am going in a circle.
I like design, it feels good to learn about design, and I would like to make money from design. Thus, I tell myself that this is a valuable thing to learn. The truth is, though, that if I ever do make money from design, I won’t be making money because of knowledge I have, but because I market and sell a skill I have.
Chances are I have other skills I could be selling to people RIGHT NOW.
I’m just not doing that.
It feels good to be doing something, and it is easy for me to tell myself that this thing I am doing is part of the bigger picture of getting from point A to point B.
But it’s not.
An orbit is not a straight line.