Even the reigning prince of Every Single Day needs a deadline.
Mine happens to be two months from today: October 17, 2017 is the Every Single Day book launch day.
You’re rock solid. Your habits are in place and growing, thriving even. You’re blossoming thanks to your Every Single Day methodology and mentatlity. You’ve come further than you ever imagined you would. But you’re ready to move further, deeper, forward.
Will just persistence get you there?
If you keep at it, stay strong, stay focused, will you make it to your … your what? Your goal? Your destination? Where are you heading? Do you know?
Status Quo
Let me back up for just a second. If your goal or dream or passion is to be stable, stay solid, to keep the status quo, then persistence is enough. It’s only when you want to progress and grow that you need milestones to check in to see how you’re doing.
Don’t get me wrong on this one: I’m loving my current status quo. Because the current status quo is so far beyond any status quo I dreamed of just a few short years ago that I could stop now (or continue to persist now) and be completely and gloriously happy.
Yet a little-known secret to the ESD philosophy is reaching beyond. With ESD, once you reach a certain level what happens is what you might not have expected. Rather than stopping at where you previously thought you would be perfectly content, you learn that where you are is only a stepping stone to something even greater. Greater than you could have imagined before.
Now that we have that out of the way.
The marathon runner really just wants to go 26.2 miles, but a daily running habit is what keeps him going. The writer wants to write but also finish and publish and market a book. Sure, the dieter wants to lose five kilos, but she also wants to live a healthier lifestyle.
There is the process, the persistence, the daily doing of it, but we need a destination, a goal, a milestone. Something where we can check in and see how we’re doing, how far we’ve come, and have a look at what’s ahead.
I mean this in the most positive way, but the goalposts are constantly moving. If you’re not yet to a certain point, that may sound frustrating, but remember that the Every Single Day is a goal in itself. The goal beyond ESD is then the fun part.
ESD will get you there, but it’s beyond the there that I’m most interested in.
In my case, I most want to be a writer, a person who writes, but I need to get books finished and, honest and truly, as much fun and play as that is, the best part is the unknown that’s to come after I reach those levels.
Persistence is the tool, but not the goal. It’s the race, but not the trophy. We need to get to a consistent level and understanding of persistence, but once we get there, our goals will broaden, grow and we will broaden and grow with it.
Then we’re really having fun.