It's 9AM
How did you do, she asked.
How did we do, I corrected.
She smirked.
We both knew it was a deflection.
I acted according to plan, and we missed.
What does that mean?
Nothing.
It means we try again.
Try harder.
Try more.
Try better.
Or it might mean a simple shift in focus.
That’s part of what yesterday’s post was about.
Deciding how to shift or where to shift.
Because of planning.
If you don’t know where you are aiming, it is directionless fire and that’s wasted effort.
Wasted energy.
And there’s too much to be done for waste.
Too little time to meander.
But as this is the first day of the month, we must take advice from the sage masters of old.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
The great Yogi Berra.
Reflecting on the dog days of August, we added 100 more people to the Youtube channel.
100 shy of the goal.
We added 20 posts to the substack archives, and 20 books to the going broad sites.
We added a shop in Tik Tok and Clapper, with no traction on each because that means going live, and no time to schedule it.
Yet.
Plus added more to the Square store and Storefront, though we are still shy of the goal.
Each of those efforts requires formatting and size adjustments, and then just plain old time to upload.
We tried a couple of experiments on Youtube, that didn’t work, and a couple that did. I don’t expect runaway success on this channel, but it does have incremental growth (views) that most traditional small business owners would kill to get.
I have to remind myself of that, sometimes, when all the parts line up.
Because I owned a brick and mortar business in the past, and if you told me in the early 90’s that thousands of people would walk through the door every day, I’d have started planning my retirement.
But trad business and some online models work in different ways.
Which is why I need remind me that expectation is not the key to success.
I also don’t need to dwell on what I didn’t get done, or what didn’t happen.
Because…
Ambition should always exceed grasp, or else what are stars for?
I’m mangling a quote from Shakespeare there, but you get the idea.
If you only try to do what you know you can do, you will always stay in the comfort zone.
And though my own zone does not always feel filled with comfort, I have to push a little harder to go beyond it.
The why behind it is simple.
Stupid, dumb training.
A tolerance for pain that exceeds a lot of thresholds, combined with one simple fact of knowledge that makes everything a little easier.
This too is gonna pass.
The clock doesn’t stop and the calendar keeps turning.
August bleeds into September, and a new thirty days gets added to the to-do.
What are you going to do to push beyond your comfort zone this month?
What habit do you want to build that you can do for thirty days?
Back to the gym?
Go carnivore for 30 days or at least quit eating processed food?
Read one fiction book a week and one non-fiction book a week?
Learn a new skill?
Write a new book?
Go for a long walk in the sun and trees and think about what you’ve done?
Sauna? Push ups? Sell one item from your closet each day on ebay or Craigslist?
Funny how you can align your habits with what you want to get done, or get changed and after 30 days you are so much closer.
Or so much further along, depending on how you look at things.
Focus.
Make the plan.
Work the plan.
Are you ready?
Check out COSMIC - a brand new short adventure (free)
Read AFTERMATH too (free)
Love Machine - The Dipole Series
All Jacked Up - The Dipole Series
Tin Trooper - The Shadowboxer Files
See what we added to Chris Lowry Books
AND
Check out these new authors:
September Mystery/Thriller NL Builder
Unmask the Mystery: Thrilling Giveaway of Gripping Suspense!
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Well I made the plan and worked the plan and am now retired after 20 years in the Navy, then 23 years working as a mechanic and electrician in the Post office i have finally retired and living in peace with my Family.