Thursday, October 22, 2026
There are no shortcuts. I wish I could tell you how to avoid challenge, downturns, and “nothing-is-happening” periods. I can’t tell you how to avoid anything, but will say going through it is the only way! I don’t know how to avoid what’s inevitable. I’m OK with my course. I’m OK with how long it takes. I want to do it right.
There is a course before me. I don’t know what that course looks like, from beginning to end. I just know, it’s my course (or curse?) – with obstacles, setbacks, downturns, and sometimes exhilarating updrafts. It’s a maze of stumbling and hunting, wondering and second-guessing. When I get an “ah-ha,” I’m grateful. When I have a desire, I’m more grateful than anything. Why? It’s a project worth having. It’s an enriching, skill-building course for me. It makes life interesting and gets me to rare places.
Interest is created only through contrast. Ups come with downs. Desires come with being without sometimes. The key is to be at peace and in good standing, at all times. Just because you want it doesn’t make it so. You will make it so. And there is a lot involved; however, be grateful for the work set before you.
Resulting success through a shortcut is a recipe for a downfall. Resulting success through diligence, love of the work and practice, and bit-by-bit exhilaration is a recipe for a windfall. Nothing worth having or accomplishing happens overnight. If it does, it’s untenable and unsustainable.
Don’t line up for the shortcut. Hustling, grinding, “banging it out,” and saving time and/or money is what the fool falls for! You will never have anything of significance under such stringency. Your skills will be weak and you won’t be ready.
Setup for the long haul. The shortcut, the fast pass, is a trap.
The tortoise wins – every time. When will we learn?