Things Get Hard When We Lack A Destination And A Timeline

Once you remember these two things, you can deal with any setback that comes your way.

Let’s say you’re going to visit an old friend in another town. Your friend sends you their location, and you pop it into your Maps app and hop into your car. It’s time to hit the road. Your app tells you how long it will take to get there and the route you need to take.

On your way to your friend on the highway, you take the wrong exit.

Tsk.

Your app, in its wisdom, beeps and quickly recalculates your destination. Yeah, you have to make a few extra turns, but in due time, you’re back on the road heading to your destination. More importantly, you know to pay attention and not make that mistake again.

When you finally make it to your friend, you have a little story to tell. How you made a turn into a neighborhood and got some death-stares. Or you had to take the scenic route. But you made it.

Why did you make it?

You made it because you were annoyed about the obstacle, but you did not stress. You did not stress because there was a clear destination and a timeline. Because of the obstacle, the timeline was adjusted but not the destination. Unless something…