Maintenance, Innovation and the Death of Astroworld

Life is such maintenance.
Maintenance is the antithesis of innovation and growth.
There is a certain inescapable amount of maintenance that must be or otherwise things breakdown but as soon as you start only looking backwards then you stop moving forward. It can happen at any age and at any time, and you may or may not be able to turn back around.
It makes me think about Astroworld. If you weren’t born and raised in the Houston area then you may not know what Astroworld was, but it was a killer theme park.
Everything has a “hay-day” and I remember Astroworld’s very clearly. When I was a kid that place was pure magic. There were areas very defined by their unique themes and the rides were so fresh and exciting. You would walk from place to place and really feel transported through time and space. Every new season at the park was some new show, new ride, new idea. Every year that I got a season pass I knew it didn’t matter what it cost, I was the one coming out ahead.
I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t tell you exactly what happened to turn the corner but it’s the same story everywhere, something made them turn around and look backward. Maybe it was the cost of operating the place, maybe they overextended themselves, maybe it was bad management, I don’t really know but at some point they turned back.
A new season at the park just meant the same old promotions, a new coat of paint on the Texas Cyclone, and higher refreshment prices. Eventually there were no themed areas, it was just a jumble of incoherent marketing attempts to keep their collective head above water. The wonder was gone. The crowds dwindled and now the magic of my childhood that felt like something you’d find going through wardrobe is just a grassy field.
It didn’t go from land if wonder to grassy field overnite and neither will all of our dreams and ambitions. It will happen when you spend a whole week binge-watching a show on Netflix instead of reading. It will happen when you decide to just listen to that same album you already heard instead of hearing a new band. It will happen when you opt for eating alone with your headphones on instead of with someone new. It will happen when you finally believe that you are too busy for anything more. It will happen when you decide it’s someone else’s turn to contribute.
All in all it will happen…IF.
What you do with IF is all that matters.
So I was really tempted to leave this with that last line, but a little bit of real talk to give you a few first steps that have piled on me through trial and error is better.
- Check under your hood: a little self exploration might help you understand some stuff. This might sound dumb but take a reputable personality test. Maybe you are trying to be your best friend from your childhood still and you need to be you.
- Drag out your demons: write down your biggest roadblocks. Is it an addiction? Is it some bad habit? Is it a toxic relationship? Is it your own ignorance?
- Get off your phone and grab a pen: Now I do realize the irony that I’m even writing this blog on my phone, but follow my deeper meaning. Make your lists in pen. Make yourself write things down and then scratch them out, carry them around, see them in your own terrible or beautiful handwriting. How you write something is sometimes just as important as what you write.
- Connect both worlds: I started off saying maintenance was the antithesis of innovation and while I stand by that it is impossible to skip maintenance. Give it its place. Make your maintenance list. Schedule it out. Be disciplined most with it for the express purpose of owning it instead of it owning you. I gotta digress on this a little because I want everyone to see themselves in this a little. When my maintenance isn’t put in its place I will put it off so that I can try to spend time doing things creatively. What always ends up happening is creativity gets interrupted or short-changed because something I hadn’t handled when I could have suddenly is on fire. Name it, plan it, get it out of the way!
- Do: start something, finish something, find people who will want to see what you finish, be a fan of someone else who needs to finish something. Enjoy what “forward” has to offer and never look back!
