Why You Should Loosen Your Grip on the End Goal
How we launched As You Are without having it all figured out
I think a lot of us hold a similar idea of what the formula for success is. With enough time, enough money, a great idea, and some stellar branding to package it for the public, it seems reasonable to believe we’re well on our way to creating something, anything hugely successful.
It’s the type of success, we’re told, that lands you that highly re-postable press feature and a catchy “Top (super young age) Under (super young age)” placement. You may even become a subject matter expert in your field and watch your social following steadily climb even though ~it’s not about the numbers for you~ (so humble, so admirable).
I don’t completely disagree: There are a lot of very successful people in the world that followed some variation of that exact path. But whether we realize it or not, I actually think that for most of us, there’s something debilitating about imagining a finish line before you even get started.
The irresistibility of latching on to a semi-well-charted, highly-praised path to success reminds me of this post from Common Discourse:
I don’t want to come off as anti-big dreams or “blowing up,” I’m just as guilty as the next person of fantasizing about an overnight success story, but I do want to pose a question: What would you stand to gain if you loosened your grip on the end goal? More often than not we get so wrapped up in the idea that the key to success is starting something new under the perfect conditions with the perfect idea that we suck all of the air out of the project before we even start.
Ask yourself, how many of your ideas are sitting on a shelf because you can’t escape the cycle of the excitement that comes with a new idea and the deflation of not executing it? Eventually, your own disappointment becomes confirmation that “it would never work” or “you’re not the right person to make it happen.” Which, to be clear, was likely decided by an audience of one.
The more we work on As You Are, the more I realize that there are far more questions ahead of us than behind us. While I could interpret that fact as evidence that we weren’t ready or we don’t have the right stuff to make this project successful, I actually think it’s more proof that we’re right where we’re supposed to be. From the start, we set a few goals that were close enough that we can reach for them through actionable steps, while also being far enough away that we have room to grow. Here’s what they looked like:
Launch our podcast 🎧
Produce at least one podcast interview a month
Streamline the editing process to make it as do-able as possible (Most of us say, “I want to start a podcast” and not “I want to be a podcast editor,” yet most of us also have to do both)
Provide value on Substack that’s different than the podcast
Commit to meeting on Zoom once a week
So, ultimately, I want to make a case for landing somewhere in the middle. Build your idea just big enough that it can leave the page without making it so prescriptive that your future has no chance to shape itself. Leave room to grow and experiment. Start with the imperfect version and see what you can do with an open runway ahead of you.
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needed this reminder today!