What are you going to give up in order to get what you want?
People are asking me how I wrote 1,000 Posts in 1,000 Days. The word that first came to mind was sacrifice.
There’s only a finite amount of time in the day, only a certain amount of energy, creativity or brain power that we can make use of. Where do we choose to apply it? What might have to get out of the way to make room for this new thing? What are you willing to give up?
WARNING: this is the hard part. People ask me (or ask anyone) how you do anything you do that they think is difficult. It’s often a question of sacrifice. But sacrifice can … suck.
I gave up a career in enterprise-level SAP consulting and implementation to do a silly trip around the world. I gave up money, credibility, trust, and not to mention a solid job to go travel. Yes, I’m half joking here, but only half. Sure, I’m a traveler at heart, but I need a job. I have degrees I’m supposed to use, languages I’m supposed to speak, and people I’m supposed to impress. Right? Right?
It’s one of those simple words that packs a punch: sacrifice. Three little syllables that will make it or break it–make or break you. It’s really back to what you want and how much you want it. You want A, B and C, but you can only have one of them. Which two do you give up? It might be temporary, it might be forever, but often, you have to choose. What will you choose?
One tip: I’m not sure this is a question for your brain. It’s not your rational side. It’s from the heart. When you know, you know. You just do. You choose and you know you made the right decision.
The beauty of sacrifice is that once you give up what you wanted, you might just find that you didn’t want it as much as you thought. Is it still sacrifice then? By then, it doesn’t matter, the deal is done. It matters that you did the deal when it was time to do it. Later, it’s all icing.
To write 1,000 Posts in 1,000 Days, I started out by sacrificing something that I thought I couldn’t give up, something I thought I needed and even was a part of me: I sacrificed fear.
- Possible: do what you don’t want and not what you do
- Impossible: do what you want and not what you don’t want
- Repossible: sacrifice
Hi Bradley,
maybe it is that the essential beats the fun.
Fun is not a priority.
Back from Lyon and already in Berlin.
Travelling beats a prestigious fun job by far.
And, which jobs are really essential. Finding out who you are is essential.
ALLES Liebe Bradley.
Hermann
This made me read it again (and again), “Fun is not a priority.”
Somehow, fun doesn’t get the blood rolling, the juices flowing. Fun is light and airy and wonderful, but it’s not as powerful, as strong. I don’t know. That doesn’t mean to say that I don’t want to have fun–the opposite, in fact–but it’s a part of it, it’s not the core of it.
What you’re “doing” or “being” is the core. If it’s fun, that’s the frosting on top.