Keep The Plan In Mind

I like to think I’m a big-picture guy.

I like planning, dreaming big, charting the idea, and letting someone else figure out all those nasty little details. I’m the guy who says, “Let’s ride bikes from Cheyenne to Raton Pass.” So we get a team together and everyone’s all excited and then someone asks, “What’s the route?”

Details.

I’m at my worst when I get buried in the details. As I was updating our website for the past few weeks I became so immersed in HTML and CSS code and color schemes that I almost forgot why we had a website in the first place. I nearly stopped writing and skipped several days of riding my bike because I just had to figure out some pressing issue that couldn’t wait. Once I get into a problem I just can’t put it away, even if more important, long-term items are neglected.

That piece of code I figured out–I could have solved that problem another day. But the day of training I skipped can never be recaptured. That’s the sort of short-term trade-off you make when you’re buried in details and can’t see the big picture. And if you add up decisions like that over a period of time, you can get yourself off course and lose track of the dream you were following.

I’m reflecting on this because I think we all need to keep the end in mind. The improved website should facilitate writing, not hinder it. Becky pointed out that we’re supposed to be building community and I’ve hardly left the house for several weeks. I think perhaps she’s being a bit over-dramatic, but she has a point.

What’s the overall plan? Where are you trying to go?

Are you thinking long-term? Are you just getting through the day, solving the immediate problem? Or are you making intentional choices?

It’s important to determine the route. It’s essential to keep the destination in mind.

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Pardon Our Mess

Our website remodel project isn’t quite complete. The contractor still has a few corners to tidy up, one of which is updating the blog page. If you receive email updates, you’ll get a summary of several old posts today. RSS readers will get re-posts of these articles.

Hopefully, this will be the end of the issue. Sorry for any inconvenience.