You are on multiple paths at this time. While you may have some doubts that one of your paths is the right path, and may want to change what you are doing, you want to make sure that you give your current path a solid effort. Nearly every path has value to take from it.
Stock-Trading
Let’s take, for example, a businessman who has been trying his hand at the stock market for nearly a year, with little profit to show for it. He is likely to want to give up buying and selling of stocks because he hasn’t gotten results. What he really should do is not focus on his poor results, and instead place a heavier focus on his stock-trading efforts.
While it is easy to give up on a path you have started traveling through, it is even easier to put a little more effort in than you normally do and end up getting results like you’ve wanted.
Working Out
Another example would be of someone who has been occasionally working out at the gym for the past three months, and who is now wondering whether he should continue, with his minimal results, or whether he should leave muscle-building fitness to those who work out daily.
What most people fail to realize when in these types of situations is that they have already accomplished the tough part of starting down a path. Just as the most energy-intensive part of driving is taking a car from a stop to a moving rate, the toughest parts of life involve starting down a path. The person with the gym membership should increase his rate of exercise to a couple of times a week, which would not be difficult because he was already working out at times. Big results would soon follow.
A smart thing to do is to examine the various paths you have begun to travel down, and to see the value you have now gotten from them. An assessment like this is not something most do, but it will give you a solid idea of where you should “stick with it” and where you have actually invested too little to care about.
Bulk Shopping
As a last example, you may have started buying foods in bulk to save money, like big bags of spinach instead of single bundles, and large sacks of potatoes instead of 3 at a time. This might not have been enough of a money and time-saving upgrade to make you want to make it an integral part of your routine. What you want to do is recognize that you have already taken a big step with savings already in place, and can easily supplement it by purchasing 6-packs of spaghetti and a big bag of rice the next time around. You take the value you have already created, acknowledge it, and then do similar things to improve even more.
Added Audio
Following your path requires some internal motivation and understanding. Here I include an audio of me rapping to an instrumental made long ago by a producer named Toby Emerson(one of my favorite music-makers of all time, who makes beautiful trance music, and his page is here). This freestyle rap is loosely about motivation, and was created straight from my mind, on the spot, with no preparation or writing beforehand(which is the only way I do them). There are some parts where I got a little close to the microphone. Feel free to take a listen:
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Is there a main or side path you are on that you have started to doubt the value of? Do you get the feeling like some path that you’ve seen someone else take has more value to it? Let us know in the comments.
photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: ryanbiddulph
April 15, 2010 at 11:47 am
I like the rap Armen. Keep spitting!
You have a talent for freestyling my friend. Well done.
.-= Ryan ´s last blog ..Don’t Share Your Money Problems with Me, I Don’t Want Them =-.
Twitter: Armen
April 16, 2010 at 10:18 am
Hi Ryan.
Thanks there. I have enjoyed doing it for a long period of time.
Good to hear from you.
Armen, are you sure that rap wasn’t rehearsed beforehand? It was so good that I didn’t think it was improvised, but if it was… you’re the man! As for the post, I think it comes down to persistence. We shouldn’t doubt our path when it doesn’t work out in the beginning. If we already invested time, energy, and effort in our path, we should just keep going and try our best to reach our goals. As you were doing your rap, you paused for a second or two, but you didn’t doubt yourself and found a way to finish all the way until the very end. The techno music also sounded awesome. Thanks for this!
Twitter: Armen
April 16, 2010 at 10:23 am
Hi Hulbert.
It sure wasn’t rehearsed beforehand. I appreciate those words about it. I will likely continue to post them in some future articles. It actually reminded me of your name thing, because I held back from posting a rap here for a long while, and then after I did it, I realized that there was nothing to wait for. Oh well.
I hear you about our path. We have investments we have made that can be salvaged and supplemented.
Next time I might do a freestyle about all you folks.
Hi Armen,
Your post made me think about the reasons I leave a path. Often I give up because the path becomes
1-boring
2-too hard
3-circumstances change
None sound like a good reason to give up, except maybe the number (3)circumstances change.
(2)-Too hard, is an interesting reason. One of my favourite sports is cycling. As I try to improve my speed and time, I have always reached a breaking point where I give up and stop training; feeling defeated. Only to come back to my training after my gains have wasted away.
I think the problem is I failed to see ,”.. the value you have already created, acknowledge it, and then do similar things to improve even more.” In other words, I have forgotten to pay as much attention to appreciation as achievement.
Thanks Armen.
p.s I enjoyed your rapping. Don’t know how you think that fast let alone speak at the same time.
Twitter: Armen
April 16, 2010 at 10:58 am
Hi Martin.
Those sure are the main reasons people leave a path. I’d say “too hard” is usually the thing we tell ourselves, even when it isn’t too hard. Self-talk does a lot to guide what we do.
Your cycling example makes some sense. We look at ourselves and what we have done and wonder how we can do things that we then partially toss away. Acknowledgment along the way rectifies part of this issue.
Thanks about the rapping. I have enjoyed doing it for a long time.
Sick lyrics.
Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result isn’t the definition of insanity…it’s the key to mastery.
It’s the same to build muscular strength, it’s needed to have focus at work, it’s needed for any path you take if you ever want to be good at it.
Einstein was wrong.
Twitter: Armen
April 16, 2010 at 11:01 am
Hi El Capitan.
I would agree for the most part. When we do things over and over, they will not be the same, because circumstances always change, so we have to adapt to do them over and over. Gary Vaynerchuk has posted a wine video almost every weekday for 4 years now, and so he has a mastery of that type of creation.
You are right there about muscle strength as well. All most folks need to do is some regular regimen routinely, and they would be exactly where they want to be.
I think you right El Capitan.
Twitter: cheryl_paris
April 16, 2010 at 3:06 am
Hello Armen,
I am so glad to have read this post. Reading this post the first thought came to my mind was an interview I watched on TV in an Oprah Show. The guest was Lance Armstrong. He explained how difficult was to beat cancer and then come back to winning the race. Everything was a challenge. That interview was awesome and so is the post.
Not winning is not a reason to quit. Everything does not work out the first time or at the first shot. It takes practice, patience and passion to achieve something or great things.
Cheers!
Cheryl
.-= Cheryl Paris´s last blog ..How Do You Discover Your Passions =-.
Twitter: Armen
April 16, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Hi Cheryl.
Thanks there about the post. Some tough things do come our way. Lance Armstrong sure is used often as an example of someone who didn’t get beaten down by some odds.
We as people also support those who battle against somewhat tougher circumstances. It is in our nature.
Cheryl, I read the unbelievable story of Lance in his book, “It’s not about the Bike” – it was amazing – he was so close to dying and has such a pathetic chance at life and look at him! Really you nailed what it takes. Thanks for the reminder!
I want you to know, Armen, that I turned off my iTunes to listen to you and was about to write something funny but man, I am impressed. I have nothing to poke fun at. You are GOOD, very very good…..now we need a video to go with it.
So true that all our paths have value. Thank you for the great reminder AND the special effects…..!
Twitter: Armen
April 17, 2010 at 9:56 am
Hi Farnoosh.
I want you to know, Farnoosh, that I was going to write something funny as well, but instead am more than glad to accept your compliments like an award. I want to thank all my fans for their support. I want to thank all the plants for smelling good when they are run by, and want to thank people for making music that I could rhythmize(newly created word, or neologism) to.
I do appreciate that though. It’s not easy to impress anyone. Glad you enjoyed it.
Armen: Those were really some impressive lyrics…especially to be freestyle. I also liked the post and it is so true that we really should analyze the different paths that we are traveling down and determine which one seems to be more consistent with our inner desires and where we ultimately want to go. Sometimes really determining our purpose and the paths that are right for us takes time and so we have to always make certain we are focusing on finding our answers.
Twitter: Armen
April 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Hi Sibyl.
Thanks about the lyrics. I enjoy the process.
That is a valid point you bring up about analyzing the paths we take. I would say this piece was a bit more about acknowledging the value of a path we are already on before we scrap it due to not recognizing the built up value in it.
On your point, though, about determining our purpose, I would agree that it is worth some of our time each day.
WOW Armen, you’ve got some serious skill in freestyle! Impressive, I have no idea how you can do that. Your flow of ideas, your messages in lyrics are something so good, you could write the lyrics out as a blog post after recording the freestyle song and you’d have your next post. This article represents a number of things to me, change, persistence, beliefs, areas we all struggle with aligning and I think that is what kills a path for us, not if its hard or boring but what we desire to change, what we belief will be the result and then the persistence it takes to make that happen. We often like to put blame on something as an exterior input, when in reality, cause is something from within when we stop.
Twitter: Armen
April 19, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Hi Mike.
Thank you there about the freestyle action. I have enjoyed doing it for a long time. That is an interesting point about writing the lyrics out for a post. I had indirectly thought of that, but had not directly thought of it. I think my mind prefers for that content to remain in audio form, at least for now.
What we desire to change is important. That is where all our marbles are. Everything else will remain unchanged, so it might as well be irrelevant to us. This is why record executives or managers look for someone with some type of hunger for success or creation. There has to be a spark there.
Armen…dude….that was fab for off the cuff! I have so much respect for freestylers…they have some amazing talent and you did a bang up job with your rap.
Am most impressed not only the fact that you did it but that you put it out there, you don’t care what other people think you just do it! Stupendous!
P.S. you have the right sounding voice for Rap!
Twitter: Armen
April 19, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Hi Amit.
Thanks about the freestyle. I do it for the community, and also for myself. It is enjoyable. That’s cool about my voice.
I hear you about putting it out there. There is something valuable about moving a step beyond the limitations of our “lizard brain”, as Seth Godin says, and releasing what we have to release. My tip for anyone would be to pretend a meteor would hit the Earth the next day, and so your skill or ability or interest would never be known by others unless you released it today.
Eminem is trying to get through to you about a collaboration, but your line is always busy.
What a cracking post Armen. So true that people only walk as far down the path as they expect the path to take them. The path will show you in time but time must be given. It also got me to thinking that many believe their path is the one others have taken (like with modern tv singing contests) instead of exploring and finding their own.
.-= John Sherry´s last blog ..5 Secrets of Politics Revealed =-.
Twitter: Armen
May 1, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hi John.
Thanks there. This is true about seeing a popular path and assuming that it is the way to go. There are usually similarities, but the people we see as “special” are the ones who took some variable in the path and altered it to better suit themselves, contrary to public opinion and support, and ended up as a leader in society.
Twitter: pletcherkhq
August 5, 2011 at 12:35 am
Thanks!
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