People keep asking me what is it I want to do. “What’s the plan?” “What’s the timeline?”
Why can’t you mind your business? I’m one of those people who doesn’t like giving a straight detailed answer because if it goes wrong I don’t want to have to explain it. Maybe she's born with it? Maybe it's anxiety! *wink* I’ve come up with a great work-a-round. I put on a real show. "How's your business? What's the plan?," a busy-body asks, part well meaning, part to be nosey. Upon hearing their inquiry, I look to the east or west (depending on that time of day), furrow my brow in the glowing sun, bring my gaze back down to their eye level, take a deep and pensive breath, and say with my chest
“I want to level up.”
Pretty great for a non-answer, right? The theatrics are meant to distract the interloper from the fact I have given them zero actual information. Though vague, the response is actually very loaded and full of potential. Until roughly a month ago when I started to draft this post, I really believed I had unlocked a major cheat code. I truly felt I created "level up" from my own mental toiling with questions of being enough and life trajectory.
Turns out it’s from an episode of Bob’s Burgers featuring Nicole Byer and literally every video game ever. Oops!
The point still remains the phrase has become more than a quippy retort. Leveling up means moving from good to great and the
central meditation for this post.
Leveling up means you’ve conquered whatever challenge was presented to you and you are on the rise. Whether it’s graduation or getting a promotion, you’ve leveled up. Moving from good to great is HORD.
We all know I love animals and am kind of obsessed with the ocean. Here comes an aquatic analogy. Like humble but mighty crustaceans, whose silky delicious flesh is protected by a hard colorful exoskeleton, I have outgrown my current lot in life. It's time for me to molt my old shell, ideas, and hang ups and let a new coating of increased responsibility, productivity, and prosperity cover my tender flesh.
I've followed all the pinterest infopreneur lifestyle blogger advice. I've digested the content. I believe in the vision. I just need to do it. All that's holding me back is me. And I'm very awful at internal motivation.
Leveling up is all fun and games (badumtiss) until it’s time to actually do it. It also requires a massive amount of patience, perserverance, and having to deal with a lot of toilet fodder. Little things start to annoy you when you've recognized you are ready for the next level.
Por exemplo:
- not having the time to do those online courses you got a promo code for while listening to a podcast at your "day job"
- lacking resources to fund your YouTube goals because you probably moved out too soon and the rent is too cuss high
- having to run your whole operation alone because you can't afford a number 2 and refuse to exploit intern labor.
Super negative, right? Lot's of can'ts and don't and nots. NOT positivity blogger approved! But it's real.
Leveling up requires perspective more than dollars and time. I fully believe in the human ability to shape reality. I have yet to actually make a vision board, but when I do, you cats and rabbits better watch out. I'm having to train myself to find opportunities in road blocks. I literally do nothing on Saturdays. Nothing. While that's valuable, I can commit 2 hours to professional development. I can set a Qapital rule to save $X toward the From the Desk of A. Allen visual platform budget. I can also map out the channel and the content so when I get it, I won't be looking silly not knowing what to do with it. I can't hire someone, but I can form a collective of like-minded, similar situationed peers that can pull down the big contracts as a unit. There's a workaround for everything.
Being great is more than achieving your goals. It's also the trying. Recognizing you're ready for more means acknowledging your accomplishments and appreciating your talents. Planning means you have the courage to face the possibility that it might all fail and you have to spend more time in your old level. Executing is a celebration of all your hard work. A victory lap, if you will.
Leveling up is change and that's never not scary. Uncertainty reduction and pain avoidance are two things humans have perfected (the third is crab rangoons). As I write this, I'm working through my own fears about it. I'm sickened by my frustration over not having the professional and personal life I want. I've finally decided that energy is best used as fuel to propel me upward and onward. I'm not there but I'm advancing the mission and that's what counts.
The previous 815 words exist to inspire both me and you, dear reader. I hope they did so. I'm still a little skeptical of these infopreneur lifestyle positivity bloggers and the things they say but I trust Bob's Burgers so I believe we gone make it.