You can look up the mountain to the climb ahead, or down the mountain to what you’ve achieved. Or, you can check out the view from where you are right now.
Sometimes when I’m working towards a goal, or trying , or something I want to improve, I can get disheartened. Motivation can drop and I’ll suddenly feel a sense of being worn down and empty. This energy dive often opens the door to questions I have about why I’m doing something, why it might feel so hard, why it can’t happen instantly, and is it worth my effort…?
Nearly always, this happens somewhere in the middle ground between setting out on my journey, and arriving at (what I thought was going to be) my destination. The mountain as goal-to-conquer might be a clichéd analogy, but it’s a good one. I want to get to the top. I’m no longer at the bottom. What got me this far, is fresh enthusiasm and a will to change myself for the better. But when I look back at the path to see how far I’ve come, it doesn’t seem that far. It doesn’t match up to the energy and time I feel I’ve put into this so far. And worse – it doesn’t seem to have made a dent on the path to the whole goal. I see more path ahead of me, than I do behind me.
Some years ago I read some motivational research that suggested the difference between those who continue to pursue their goals in the face of this demotivation, and those that don’t, is down to one thing: which part of the path they’re focusing on. Those that look up the mountain and see how far they have yet to go? Apparently they feel worse, and are prone to a sense of hopelessness about the whole endeavour. Those that focus on the path they’ve travelled and how far they’ve come? It seems they are better able to dig deeper for determination to continue.
I remember when I read the article, that it struck me as the difference between a celebratory approach (hurrah! Look what we’ve achieved!) versus a minimising approach (yeah, never mind the ground we’ve covered, look how much we’ve left to do!). There is likely something in this: in my humble experience, realising the fruit of my endeavours does produce a better mood and more creative thinking than spending my energy ruminating on how little impact I’ve had compared to the size of the whole job.
But something else works for me even better. And that’s taking a little time to stop and look out from the mountain, rather than looking at it. Every step on a development journey, no matter how little it might contribute to the overall goal, gives me a fresh view, and from a better standpoint than the previous step.
My focus now is on how my efforts have changed my perspective, how I have grown (even a teeny, tiny bit), and how I’m an improved version of me because of it. The view from the mountain is far more impressive, and is a direct result of the work I’ve put in.
And the bigger the goal or project, the more helpful this approach becomes. When hundreds or thousands of steps seem to have little impact on progress, I just look at the view and notice how different it is today than yesterday.
I wish someone had told me this when I was writing up my thesis. And I hope this comes to you at a time when you can try it out for yourself and realise that it’s not always about how far you’ve come, or yet to go – it’s about how much you are changing your view of the world, and the way you function in it.
Go you! You are awesome. Also, Bingle Jells.