Sidestepping to your big (and small) goals

Oh, hi friends!

As someone who thinks about the future a lot, I have a funny habit of not working backwards very often.

What happens when you do that—pick a goal and then look at the steps to get there in reverse—is kind of amazing? You actually have a path. 

Could be simple as saying: I want to leave work at 5 p.m. and then actually figuring out how that’s possible. (Finish X by 2 p.m., keep that meeting to 15 minutes, and so on.)

Could be as a major as saying: I want to write and direct a feature film in a year. Then you go, well, what would that actually look like? Who’s got a camera? What screenwriting software do you need? How many pages do you need to write a day? Who can crew?

Not just dreams or goals, but steps! Steps.

Oh, hi.

Photo by Trinity Kubassek from Pexels

“The key to staying curious is getting out of your comfort zone. Do something you haven’t done before. Go to a place you haven’t been before.”

Love this advice from my former boss Tina Brown.

So what does staying curious look like in practice? Doing something you haven’t done before can, of course, be something major: hopping on a plane on the first flight out of JFK! (Except…I don’t…think…people…do that.)

Or it could mean buying a book by an unfamiliar author. Going two miles out of your way and stumbling on a different neighborhood. Literally. Anything. Buying a strange-looking fruit at the grocery store because you’ve never tried it before. Meeting someone with a job in a different industry and asking them questions to figure out what they do, even though you’re “shy” and that’s not, like, your typical speed.

You’re curious; you go down a road, you see what happens.

This video is…well, you’ll see. Pilgrim! The song—called “The Barrel” by Aldous Harding—is gorgeous though. My new go-to must-concentrate-but-not-be-distracted song. Spotify link for your convenience! (h/t Mike A.)

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Thanks, as always, for reading.

Love, Kara