Do you have “look over there!” syndrome?

A famous philosopher once said: If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. If he gets distracted and walks away while you’re teaching him, he won’t learn anything and will starve to death.

With this post, I’m going to hazard a guess and try to do my best to tell you why you might be having trouble getting things done in life. I don’t mean just going grocery shopping or cleaning the house, although what I’m about to say is applicable there, too.

No, I mean the big stuff. Like becoming an architect. Or finishing your novel. Or accomplishing that “crazy dream” you thought up when you were only 5 and which hasn’t left you yet.

In the beginning…

Once upon a time, you dreamed of accomplishing Something Grand. Maybe you were young when you thought it up, and maybe not. But your first thought was, “I’m doing this,” and somehow it was just right.

The world got quiet and maybe things seemed very simple to you right at that moment, for you hadn’t yet thought of the mechanics of how it would all be done. Nonetheless, you knew it was true: “Yeah, gosh. That’s it. That will be me. This will be my life.”

And things were good and the sun came up and the dew sparkled in the grass. For the next week you hardly needed to sleep, such was your excitement.

Hey…look over there!

Then, ugh, you hit some slight resistance. Maybe it turned out the effort wasn’t quite what you’d expected. Maybe there was some funky nomenclature surrounding your goal and it was all just “too complicated.” Maybe it turned out you weren’t such a natural at it as you thought you’d be.

And that beautiful, simple, true goal you had…it got buried a bit. It didn’t get any smaller, just got rusty maybe.

Then your friend told you the idea was shit and your parents sort of scoffed and said, “Well…uh…I guess that’s cool but you should probably have a backup plan.” And you concluded your parents must be stupid, but nonetheless you got a bit more introverted about it. Your dream rusted just a bit more, but didn’t die.

Then the effort involved with the goal got even tougher. I mean, who knew that writing a book could be such a bitch? And why did manufacturing have to screw up a whole batch of plastic? And who am I to start a business…I’m nobody!? So you got sidetracked just a little bit more. More rust; same big dream.

But…there are so many diversions.

Yeah, there are diversions. And there are a lot of them.

And the bigger your dream, and the more complex it is, and the more time it takes to accomplish it, the more diversions there are going to be.

Here…let’s all pretend we have an IQ of around 49 and try a little mental exercise:

I would like you to decide to go make yourself a sandwich. I don’t care if you want a sandwich right now or not. Just decide to go make yourself a sandwich.

Now, in regards to this sandwich’s construction, there are two methods of attack:

Goal Attainment Method One: Go make a sandwich. Keep track of how long it takes you.

Goal Attainment Method Two: Don’t go make a sandwich, but instead sit there and think about why you don’t want a sandwich. Then wonder why you’re afraid of sandwiches. Then think to yourself, “Hmmm…I’m afraid of making a sandwich, and I don’t really want one to begin with. I wonder why. Maybe I’ll go see a psychologist since it’s probably that Can’t-Make-a-Sandwich disorder I heard about.” Then hire an outside consultant to help you determine the best way to approach your sandwich dilemma. Then wonder why I’m asking you to make a sandwich to begin with, and conclude that I must be some sick pervert. Then just for good measure, debate calorie count and FDA stipulations about your available bread type.

Now, guess which method produces a sandwich fastest. And guess which method might never ever ever result in a sandwich.

That’s right. And although this is a horribly simplistic idiotic analogy, I wouldn’t write it off as inapplicable.

For this whole sandwich soap opera is your life.

And that was just a sandwich. What if the goal was actually…you know…a GOAL. Like being a CEO. Or starting a knitting company and selling your wares. Or losing 200 pounds.

Those things might take time. They might take education. They might take gaining an entirely different skill set than you currently possess. There will be diversions a’plenty.

What do we do about this?

Well…what we do about this is incredibly simple. More simple than making a sandwich even. And I’m going to tell you all about it.

Next week.

Come on back next Wednesday and we’ll talk some more about this. Subscribe Now! so you don’t miss it. In the meantime, read this post and then read it again. See if any of it is true for you. I’ll bet maybe a little of it is, even if it’s just the fact that you want a sandwich.

Quick little note

Those of you who are long-time fans are saying to yourselves: “Wow. Two posts in one week. What the hell is going on here?”

The answer is that Wednesdays are my new posting days. I was going to start posting every Tuesday and Thursday, but going from roughly 5 posts a year to two a week is a feat for better folks than I.

So yeah. This site means a lot to me. And the people I’ve met/helped/gotten help from mean way more than that. So I’m back. Tell your friends.