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Nothing.
That was my moonshot for this past summer.
No, you didn’t misread that. For someone who speaks about moonshot thinking, it might seem absurd to say my goal was to do absolutely zilch.
Yet that’s what I did. Aside from giving a few keynotes, I stepped into the void and sat still.
The old me would have operated under very different rules. The week after I launched my 2020 book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist, I began writing the proposal for what became Awaken Your Genius. When I was in academia, the hamster wheel of academic publications always kept spinning.
Non-stop action was my status quo. I didn’t have a pause button.
Sure, this mode of operating made me productive. But I was so focused on production that I became myopic. Big opportunities were floating by, practically waving at me, but I was too engrossed in my self-imposed chaos to notice them. This pedal-to-the-metal mentality prevented me from making the best decisions.
After Awaken Your Genius was published this past spring, I wrestled with the magnetic pull towards the Next Big Thing.
My moonshot was to resist that pull and choose stillness instead.
As I stepped into stillness, something magical happened. Ideas started pouring in—book concepts, keynote topics, course outlines, you name it. It was as if my brain switched to a frequency it had rarely accessed before, downloading these insights like a torrent.
The old me would have rushed to turn those brainwaves into action items. Not this time. I tucked them away, squirrel-style, for future use.
You see, I’ve been taking lessons from the ultimate teacher: Mother Nature. She obeys an ancient algorithm: Sit still. Wait for things to come.
Trees don’t try to produce fruit year-round in an absurd attempt to be more productive. They embrace dormancy, shed their leaves, and wait. No amount of tugging or overwatering will force a tree to grow faster.
Humans also have seasons. In some seasons, it’s time to act. In others, we’re better off easing up, stepping back, and allowing space for the water to be absorbed.
As fall rolls in, my season of action is awakening. Out of the dozens of ideas that emerged this summer, I picked three to execute within the next year.
I’ll reveal one of these game-changing projects on October 17th. Look out for an email from me then.
And the next time someone asks about your moonshot, don’t feel obligated to plot a course to the stars.
Sometimes, the bravest mission is a holding pattern, giving space for your trajectory to reveal itself.
