Seth Godin talks about taking “the Long Cut” instead of trying to find the easy way to do things or taking a short cut.
This is a difficult concept in this day and age where we are so accustomed to getting what we want, when we want, exactly how we want it.
On the surface, getting what we want, when we want it is good, but it seems to really diminish the value of things as well.
I think this is especially true with the things we work for and the expectations we have for how quickly things will come our way.
Ever since starting this blog I have been bombarded with emails about how to get 100,000 people on my mailing instantly. People follow me on Instagram promising thousands and thousands of followers if I click their link or follow them, the same thing happens on Twitter. Now I am getting these offers for podcast downloads.
I don’t know if this is an outdated idea, but my entire business plan is to offer quality work and hope this brings people my way.
This has worked well with the counseling and life coaching and meditation instruction. I know that the internet is a slightly larger pond than Lubbock, Texas, so I am working on building an email list and I try to cross-promote what I do, but I don’t think I ever really want to have inflated numbers or people who follow me because they want me to follow them back.
I wonder if getting things so quickly and easily has taught us to dabble in things instead of perfecting a craft and doing the work required to create something real.
Learning that somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of Barack Obama’s Twitter followers were bots, and that most celebrities average between 19-35% of their followers being fake, it looks like we live in a world where image is far outweighing reality (Trump falls into this range too, this isn’t me being political).
It’s weird to talk about taking the long cut in a high-speed world, but it also seems like the only way to build a solid foundation.
Image only carries a person so far, but it seems like the first thing many of us want to focus on, and this is understandable when we live in a world where image is confused with reality. It may be more fun to think about how you are going to decorate your house, but it’s not going to last very long if you don’t pay attention to plumbing first.
Work is fun. Work is good.
Things change drastically when we do something because we do it rather than for some specific outcome.
What is something you love to do?
What is something you are willing to build slowly, to craft into something you can be proud of?
Is image truly important?
Can we create anything worthwhile if image is our primary focus?
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