The One Big Problem With "The Grind"
Are you in a maze? Here's the counterintuitive thing to do.
My kid likes to watch an episode of the television show Cory Carson that involves the main character and his buddies navigating their way through a corn maze. Mazes are interesting because when you are able to access the overhead drone shot of the maze, it’s pretty easy to solve the puzzle. Follow a path through to the center. But, when you’re inside the maze and you can’t see the overhead view? It’s much more challenging.
Most of our day-to-day lives are lived inside the equivalent of our own corn mazes. We are surrounded by ten-foot-tall bales of hay and we usually don’t know if one path will lead us to our desired destination until we follow it through to a dead end. It’s time consuming, frustrating, and confusing.
So, how do we figure out how to get to where we want to go? How do we get access to that drone shot of our life maze?
Great question.
In Cory Carson, the kids (cars) end up driving straight through the hay bales to get to where they want to go. That’s one way. We can barrel straight toward whatever solution we want without following the rules . Large amounts of money can usually plow through most of life’s bales of hay. Cheating the system can also do it.
But, in most cases, we need to figure out how to get to where we want to go without plowing down walls.
How do we do that?
Create your own drone shot.
Day-to-day life can be overwhelming. I mean, it is for me, anyway. Tell me if any of these phrases sound familiar:
If I just keep my head down and keep working, I’ll get there eventually.
I have so much to do, I can’t stop to reassess.
I’ll make that big decision when I have the time (which will be the third of never).
Guess what? That kind of thinking is the equivalent of running around a maze without a compass or a clue. How do I know? I do it all the time.
In the past few years, though, I have found a way to create the equivalent of my own personal drone shot of the corn maze of my life. Ready for it?
Time outside of the maze.
At the beginning of 2022, I stepped away for 48 hours to create priorities, to look at the past year, to make plans for the next year, to set goals, and to automate as much of my life as possible. It was very, very helpful.
I chose to pull away from one pursuit in favor of another (that is going very well). I chose to reprioritize my daily routine to highlight my main goal of the year. And I looked at what was working and what was not.
And this year? I plan to do exactly the same thing. That week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve? I’ll be planning for the year ahead without doing ANYTHING else. (I’m even considering a staycation in a friend’s guest house for a night).
The thing is, if you are in the thick of it with no time to reflect, plan, look forward, prioritize, or even breathe, you are running around a massive corn maze without a compass.
The one big problem with “the grind” is that it doesn’t pause. Grinding is great if you know where you’re going. But running around without a sense of where you are or what direction you’re heading? It might be good cardio, but that’s about it.
So, whether you take an hour at the beginning of the week, you take a day at the beginning of the next month, or you truly plan out your year, the more time you can take away from the day-to-day stress to focus the drone shot of your personal corn maze, the more likely you are to get to where you’re going in a more efficient manner.
When are you going to stop and look around? Want some accountability? Leave it in the comments. :)
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Love,
Michelle