How Far Will the Smooth Train Travel Go

 How Far Will the Smooth Train Travel Go ?

Analogous to a train ride, in our life, we have much more moments of smoother rides than those rough patches, rough rides.  Problem is, when life is so good, we are tempted to have kampai's left and right.  We may not be that prematurely celebratory but when a friend taps our back and flatters you even with a minor-minor success, you fall prey and end up succumbing to host kampai's left and right.

And when onboard that smooth freight train ride, it feels to be a smooth one till you reach your finish line.  Lowering our guard during those moments become our point of reckoning.  And all your efforts can go for naught just for those fleeting moments of undoing, of utter remiss.

And during those moments of complacency, we tend to be constantly up there in Cloud 9.  Things just can't seem to go wrong until it goes wrong.  Our skills ?  We thought we were a notch over everyone else, giving us that feeling of resting on our laurels.  But hey, our skills have much shorter shelf lives !  You may be an SME [Subject Matter Expert] now on a specific technology but tomorrow, that could be obsolete.

Go over to your plants.  They can't remain that springer unless you constantly nurture them.  Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams articulated it clear enough @ https://hbr.org/2014/03/manage-your-work-manage-your-life, they are emphatic that managing your work means managing your life.  They highlight human capital, 'endeavoring to give both work and home their due through the years, not just weeks or days.

And nurturing to keep those relationships healthy through and through can never be understated.  We can't affort relationships to crumble, be it at work or at home as both our work and our homes are the very bedrock and foundations of our life.  So, it becomes imperative that you always remain steadfast and maintaining that hard-earned momentum.  And here's the common culprit. Each time you shift your focus or you stop what you're in, you bet, you'll lose that momentum and to regain that, it will need much more energy again.

If you're a freelancer, Mary Mehaffey rattles @ https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/consultcollaborate/sustainmoment/index.php for us to sustain that momentum.  And she highlights ten pitfalls [i'd like to call it the ten landmines planted all over the place] for us to avoid.  Indeed, to work as a freelancer will be challenging as you become more vulnerable to be pulled at various directions.

And if there's 'ONE THING' that will keep you going, never lose focus on your goals and if ever you momentarily lose it, Marvin Marcano articulates well @ https://medium.com/publishous/how-to-recover-when-you-lose-momentum-with-your-goals-cc02bd128d79.  Just don't beat yourself up.  Simply acknowledge it, address the gaps and move.

Geoffrey James calls it the 'upward momentum' @ https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-create-upward-momentum.html.  And he clearly cautions us that if we "don't do the work to keep moving up, you're doomed to go downhill".  And by the way, you can run like Usain Bolt [the Jamaican who's considered the greatest sprinter ever] but if you're running around in circles, you'll not get the finish line.  Tough call for you dude.🌈🌈🌈