I love new ideas.
They are carefree and exhilerating. They promise exciting advancement and change. They are cute and fresh. Those new ideas are quite a contrast to the old ones cluttering up my brain and filling my day with commitments and just plain work. New ideas are free spirited race horses which are a big contrast to the plodding workhorses I follow down the furrows each day. It’s no wonder when I find a new idea that it attracts me. New ideas are fun and free wheeling, full of the easy promise of the unknown. ‘What if‘ is so much more enticing than putting in the work.
So you can see my problem.
I get diverted easily. A new idea penetrates my skull and I’m immediately ready to dart off in persuit, abandoning my plans and commitments. It’s amazing that I make any progress doing business on the web where there are so many levels of technical complexity to either master or ignore. I stumble along alternating between complete bewilderment and stunning overconfidence changing course along the way any time I find a new idea.
I call it pivoting.
So when the topic of pivoting came up last Saturday, I could relate. I’ve become a master pivoter- not in the sense that a business guru might appreciate where you cooly appraise a situation with all its complexities, evaluate the alternatives and twist your perspective to gain an advantage.. With me, it’s more looking at my hopeless situation and seizing the nearest escape route. The problem is the premature identification that the situation is hopeless without actually doing the work and implementing the plan. Rather than moving steadily forward and making progress on my plan, I am always looking for the shortcut or escape route. I want the quick fix; rhe instant success, the perfect plan. I don’t want the tedium of putting the pieces in place and resolving the details. When the going gets tough, I look for something easy. I pivot.
Right now I’m torn.
Should I master the path I’m on or shift the focus. How can I tell differentiating a new direction from quitting a bad one. Nobody yet has produced a cookbook for blog success- and I’ve spent some money looking. Nobody can tell me what will work for me and I have proven that imitation produces fakes. Do I shake things up and follow some new ideas or plod on hoping to master my current plan. What constitues success? How long before my planning and work pays off? Am I making progress? Am I in a dead end or a dip? I’m getting impatient.
New ideas, I hear you calling.
Good question, Ralph. Blogging seems very difficult to quantify. The various ways to measure “success” like Alexa or Technorati have such large swings in results to make using them tantamount to rolling dice. Google changes how it ranks pages often enough to make secret “tips” useless.
On the flip side, blogging rewards new ideas and fresh thinking, at least until others copy or coattail on your thoughts.
My answer? Do what makes you happy. If you are getting frustrated by what you are doing now, shake it up. If you think you may just have a case of spring fever, delay a decision for a few months.
You aren’t running ads so your risk either way is minimal. But, why bother if it makes you frustrated and stressed!
Satisfyingretirement’s last Blog Post ..The 12 stake
Bob,
Frustrated and stressed maybe overstates my current state but I am a self-confessed whiner, I keep judging myself and my performance. And it bugs me that the answers aren’t clear and apparent.
I’m trying to get my thoughts straight here. I probably should keep it to myself and do another post.
Ralph…something will open for you and when it does, jump on it. It happened for my daughter when a new career path plopped right down in front of her; it’s happening to me! I’M GOING BACK TO WORK. WORK? you can probably hear Maynord G Krebbs saying it now “WORK?” I saw my former boss at a meditation group we both attend, and she told me probationland was hiring back retirees to work some extra-help, on some huge bank caseloads. I wasn’t so sure I really wanted to go back to the house of pain, but told her I’d be interested, just to keep my options open. Well, the pay is over thirty dollars an hour, and I can’t say no to that. For that, I’ll put any personal issues with them aside, and rake in some dough. I’m selling out, but only to the highest bidder. Look for my Hansi post forth coming entitled 3000 Drunk Drivers, for a more hallucinogenic take on the whole thing.
Back to the point. Keep options open. Please don’t be self critical, be patient, something will break (open) for you. Sounds like a lot of New Age BS, but look what plopped down right in from of me; I sure as hell didn’t seek it out.
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Phucking A
Hansi,
You are right. I get this way from time to time and just need to be slapped silly, You know the feeling when you look at your stuff and it looks like crap and then you ses somebody else’s stuff and it is pure gold? Well, that’s where I am right now. It passes.
Thanks for the slap!