I had a frustrating week. I worked, but maybe not as hard as I could have since I never reached a good flow state with it. It was five long days of grind, without much sign of visible progress for my podcast. But then, last night I reflected a little, and found that it wasn’t actually a bad week.
The only thing that wasn’t working was my attitude.
I’ve been working towards my goal of reaching 1,000 total downloads for my podcast, and now that I’m within striking range (in the mid-700s), that number has become more and more of a distraction. I felt, at the beginning of this week that I could push and squeeze a little more, and maybe hit that number just by asking guests and listeners to share the podcast with their friends, as well as by reintroducing older episodes to new listeners. I wanted a shortcut to a bigger audience, in other words. It worked a little, but not nearly enough to close the gap.
I’m confident that over time, that “vanity-number” will grow from 1,000 total downloads to 3,000 to 5,000 to 10,000 (hopefully). But I am also certain that it will at no point give me happiness or inner peace. It will only satiate my ego for a few moments before I need a new, higher number to be satisfied. Therefore, if I define success solely through external metrics (like the size of my audience), I will never feel fulfilled.
Because that’s a sure-fire way to drive yourself crazy. You pick an arbitrary number and evaluate success based on that and the behaviors of others, when what you should do is focus on doing the right things consistently and living in accordance with your values. All good things flow from that.
There are however, many things that are inherently rewarding, and that produce good long-term results. This week, I did many such things. I grew my network and met up with some fun fellow podcasters from Portland last night, I built up my relationship with one of my original guests–thereby moving me closer to one of my original goals of the podcast, surrounding myself with people I want to emulate–, met some great people through Rotary and signed up for a couple events with them, and I reconnected with previous guests and began developing systems to support my podcast’s growth strategy. Does that sound kind of fluffy and unquantifiable? Yes. But does that mean my work this week had no value? Certainly not.
The rewards of this last week won’t show up in the numbers for another 2-3 weeks, if not longer. But I’ve made some good progress in two important areas: relationships and skills. These are the kinds of things I should focus on because they are long term, but are intrinsic reward today.
Having said all that, I now want to reaffirm my goals for this podcast. At a coffee meeting earlier this week, I stated my goal as getting 5,000 downloads per episode by June 29, 2018. But, again, that kind of goal only produces stress and anxiety, while undercutting the real reasons I got into the podcasting game. Instead of constantly feeling like I’m falling short of my 1 long-term goal, I want to set short term goals that I can renew every day, that will produce good results over the long term.
These goals are:
- Surround myself and learn from a group of accomplished business owners
- Develop my own philosophy on entrepreneurship and continue with my own journey
- Build lasting relationships with the kinds of people I admire
- Share the concepts of business ownership and entrepreneurship with people who otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to it.
It’s not about hitting 5,000 downloads/episode, or even about making money because neither of these things bring me joy. It’s about those 4 other goals, and following through on them consistently. Improving lives is the only worthwhile and sustainable priority.
While I’m at it, here are my goals for my other hobby, investing.
- Provide my loved ones with a mechanism for accumulating and growing wealth so that they can feel more secure, and do more of what they want in life.
- Understand psychology as it pertains to the way our beliefs impact our reality.
- Understand my own emotional profile, and remain disciplined by applying only those strategies I can stick to, and that have a sustainable edge rooted in human behavior
Money, in this second game is merely a convenient measure of how well I am fulfilling these goals. It is not the goal itself. Doing a good job produces money sustainably. Money does not have the power to make it a good job, because money does not provide joy. These 3 goals provide joy, purpose, (and money also). Nothing is sustainable without joy or purpose.
The name of the game (life) is to align yourself with core principles that reflect your priorities and beliefs, and to act in accordance with them every day.