I am not Delusional

Posted by @Stephen |

Stephen Smith Web EntrepreneurI’m an entrepreneur. Or am I?

This is what has been bugging me for a few weeks, and even more so since my birthday just whooshed by yesterday.

I have been working ( a lot) as the restaurant manager for a small hotel here in NH and, while it is rewarding and fun and all of that, I miss the freelancing and excitement of my own biz.

I spent some time yesterday working on brainstorming and planning and goal-setting for 2010, and came to the conclusion that I am going to have to be very focused and extremely diligent if I am going to accomplish the things that I want to do while working around the full-time-job thing.

In fact, I am a full month behind where I should be in terms of updating some of my products for 2010. While I can write part of that off to being sick for 4 weeks in Oct/Nov, a big part of it is that I simply have not been at my desk. The state of my in-box can attest to that! I linked to a post about creating a fixed schedule for yourself in order to balance work and non-work last week, but this solution is just not going to work for me – I can’t create a fixed schedule for the restaurant. So this is going to take some more thinking, with these concepts as guidelines:

  1. Time allows you to rest and recover – I particularly need downtime for recuperating from stress. Pushing myself and overcoming challenges are excellent ways to invest time, yet until I fully recover from the recent bout with illness, resting is the best way to use some of the time I gain from that investment.
  2. Time allows you to increase your focus – With less time to work on the “important” projects that I do want to complete, it is vital that I focus tightly on them. And start less projects in order to accomplish/complete the ones that I do start.
  3. Time allows you to see how things turn out – Having set this restaurant manager gig in motion I am identifying the variables that are beyond my control, and now waiting to determine their full effects is all I can do. I will work toward investing this downtime to prepare for the next stage of the progression.
  4. Time allows you to create balance in your life – All work and no play leads to a heart attack, or GERD. I must remember to invest the time that I do have to be with/communicate with my family and friends. Connecting with your circle is energizing and something that I definitely do not do enough of. Hearing from people that I have not heard from in a long time was one of the best things to happen yesterday.

There it is. Part one of the thought-process. Part two will involve making some choices and breaking down the vital projects into Action Steps. The choices will be difficult, mainly because I have started/want to start too many things.

Because it is time to get back into that entrepreneurial mindset, applying it to my “job” and to the freelancing/personal projects. It is time stop deluding myself, hoping that these projects can languish and wait on the back burner until some point in the future where “more time” magically appears.

Because, like everything else in Pandora’s Box, hope is evil and destructive. [important note: I am not being a pessimist or taking the negative point of view, it's just that hope is not a viable strategy for accomplishing anything, and hope is distinct from positive thinking]

Do less to accomplish more is my new mantra.

Discipline and Focus are the watchwords.

I will keep you posted, can you help me stay on track with encouragement and gentle prodding? I think that Twitter will be the best place for that.

8 Comments »

  1. Comment by Phil Stanoch — 2 December 2009 @ 10:10 am

    Stephen,

    I can relate to everything that you are going through right now. I too have many things started or wanting to start but never enough time to complete them. Having worked with you through email and over the phone in the past, I am certain that you will figure this out and get back on track. I am looking forward to reading your future posts, as I am sure to learn things that will help me as well.

    Phil

  2. Comment by @Stephen — 2 December 2009 @ 10:20 am

    Thanks, Phil. I plan to do more updating here for accountability purposes.

  3. Comment by Rob — 3 December 2009 @ 5:08 am

    Interesting times Stephen. A dramatic life event such as your recent illness can certainly make us re-evaluate where we are and what we are trying to achieve, combine this with the approaching New Year and I bet you have a lot of food for thought. I’m sure you’ll come out of this more focused and successful in 2010. Great that your see the value of connecting to your circle, so often this can get pushed onto the backburner when we are “busy”.
    “Do less to accomplish more” – Thanks, that’s a great mantra and one I’m adopting from now on too.
    Look forward to your updates.

  4. Comment by Deb — 3 December 2009 @ 7:48 am

    Stephen,
    You had me until you said hope is evil and destructive. I do agree it is not a viable strategy for accomplishment ON ITS OWN – but evil and destructive? Nah.

    I think you can use hope as a springboard to better action. Hope standing alone is not a plan for action. However, hope along with your plan makes it more powerful.

    wikipedia said it best for me:
    Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis. When Pandora opened Pandora’s Box, she let out all the evils except one: hope. Apparently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world’s evils. But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well. It may be worthy to note that in the story, hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils. In some faiths and religions of the world, hope plays a very important role. Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. Consider a prisoner of war who never gives up hope for escape and, against the odds, plans and accomplishes this. By contrast, consider another prisoner who simply wishes or prays for freedom, but without genuine hope, or another who gives up all hope of freedom

    @debworks

  5. Comment by @Stephen — 3 December 2009 @ 8:01 am

    Good perspective, Deb. Perhaps my own viewpoint is a bit skewed by my Dutch Calvinist upbringing and hearing pithy things from my grandfather like, “Don’t just sit there and hope for rain, boy, go out and dig a well.”

    Same thing, slightly different definitions of the word.

  6. Comment by Robert Hruzek — 3 December 2009 @ 8:26 am

    Well, I was going to say a lot of what Deb said about Hope, but… well, she already did! (You know what they say about “great minds”.) But I will add one more thought, though.

    In the Bible “hope” is called “the anchor of the soul” – a far more powerful concept than the wishy washy “hope” we tend to use in our culture these days. I understand what you mean, I think, but still, I’d maybe focus a little more on that anchor, y’know?

    Cheers, and a tip o’ the hat to ya!

  7. Comment by @Stephen — 3 December 2009 @ 8:34 am

    Indeed, Robert. The “wishy-washy” definition of hope used today creates some nasty false ideas about how things happen to and for us. I am reminded of the story (parable?)

    After a frenetic week of hysterical meteorological predictions for a Category Three hurricane, the first of the dreaded raindrops began. The police sent out patrol cars stop house by house and encourage people to leave. One good old boy greeted the officer with sanguine optimism. “Mais, no. Ah grew up here. Mah daddy grew up here. His daddy grew up here. Dah Lord’s gonna take care o’ me. I done ax Him.” Nothing the officer could say would dissuade him.

    As torrential rains fell, the bayous began to rise and lap at the steps of people’s homes. Police patrols in boats went around collecting the previously reluctant and assisting them to shelter. Once again, the insistent good old boy maintained that he was going to stay put and that God was going to save him.

    The water levels grew higher and higher, so before long, the persistent hold-out had taken to his roof to wait. At this point, a rescue helicopter came around, throwing down a rope ladder and bull-horning to him to climb up. He shook his head and insisted that God would save him, thank you very much.

    Sadly, the man succumbed to the forces of nature and found himself in Heaven. He gazed reproachfully at God and ask why He had not saved him. God levelly returned his gaze and said, “I sent a patrol car, a boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

  8. Comment by Robert Hruzek — 3 December 2009 @ 8:39 am

    Great story! A first heard that one from the pulpit at church. A wonderful illustration of what your grandfather used to tell you.

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