Take the Wheel

Focus.

Building anything worthwhile takes focused effort. That can be difficult in our attention deficit economy.

How can you get any one thing done with so many things competing for your attention? Work and family obligations, sure, but life’s probably put a lot of things on your mind in general.

More to the point, how hard is it to focus on anything when the world’s been conditioning you to skim and like everything in pursuit of the next little dopamine hit?

Something else about that Chris Brogan email I mentioned yesterday stood out. He was advocating that flag and song thing because society, in general, has run out of attention. We’re all constantly distracted and nobody seems to have time to really dig into things anymore.

He’s right.

But we’re talking about our lives here.

If there’s anything worth slowing down and focusing on, isn’t your life that thing?

There will always be a mile-long #todo list hanging over your head. The dishes, laundry, yardwork, home and vehicle maintenance, etc.—but we gotta carve out time to dive deep on our dreams.

Beyond the #todo list, I want to learn how to fly, go skydiving (not while learning to fly, lol), ride a motorcycle across Rajasthan, build an overlanding rig, restore an old sailboat, restore an old Alfa Romeo, hike the JMT, and a lot more—but right now, I’m putting all my bandwidth into the super issue.

You can have everything you want if you’re willing to help others get what they want.

Stand for something or fall for anything, right?

If you want to go somewhere, if you want to be somebody, you gotta be the one behind the wheel more often than not. Otherwise, you’re just along for the ride.

Take the wheel.