July 28, 2017
On May 24th, I wrote a post titled Shifting To Maker Mode For The Summer. I had full intentions of making this shift around Memorial Day and sustaining it until Labor Day.
I have completely failed at this. While Iâm managed to stay off social media and read a lot more than watch TV, I massively underestimated the amount of transactional activity Iâd have this summer. On Monday mornings, when Iâd look at my schedule for the week, Iâd see a wall of blue through Friday, starting early in the morning and going until dinner time. My goal was to have nothing scheduled until 1 pm with an upper bound at 5 pm, but this ended up being an epic fail. And, as a bonus, Iâve had a dinner almost every night between Monday and Thursday so far this summer (thatâs not a good thing.) Iâve had a few days that werenât completely full, but theyâve ended up being catch-up days.
The next few of weeks are more of the same. So, Iâve accepted that Maker Mode is not happening this summer.
Iâve got two books in process: Give First and Startup Communities 2. I wrote 15,000 words on Give First in March but havenât opened my Scrivener file since. I have a co-author (Ian Hathaway) work is hard at work on the first draft of Startup Communities 2, so at least heâs making progress, but I havenât even started holding up my part of that particular bargain.
Iâm am running and have committed to do the Run Crazy Horse marathon in South Dakota in October. The running has been great for my body and even better for my mental health, so thatâs good.
I feel deep equanimity around this. In the past, Iâd be frustrated with myself for not getting in gear. But in hindsight, itâs clear that maker mode wasnât realistic given the other work commitments I have along with all of the episodic stuff that regularly comes up in my work life. Snoopy continues to be my guide on this particular journey.
Also published on Medium.
