Lower Your Expectations
lesson from trying to ship a new product/start a startup over a mini-vacation
my abilities don't match my ambitions.
this realization hit me after a week of attempting to build a startup product. i'm not incapable - i've broken through ceilings before - but i've developed this sense that i'm destined for greatness, and yet my ambitions outstrip my current abilities & means.
my process repeats itself.
i start something with extreme excitement. i work intensely for hours or a day. then i hit a snag: business model issues, discouraging data, technical challenges, & i drop everything.
this happens because i begin with astronomical expectations. i imagine million-dollar outcomes from ideas with zero validation. i immediately calculate potential profits before proving concept viability.
this pattern stems from childhood. my parents constantly told me i could be great at anything. they hyped me up. who would call parental encouragement a bad thing? i love them for it.
but it created ambition disconnected from real feedback.
this week taught me valuable lessons about my brain's operating system. i haven't built a product, but i've built understanding. i've learned how my motivation works, where i encounter obstacles, & how to approach these barriers.
lowering expectations provides a baseline. i need to approach each day, weekend, or project expecting nothing remarkable to happen. life just continues.
this isn't permanent. my abilities need to catch up to my ambitions.
i need to build without the pressure of launching or even having a business model. these constraints eliminate the chance of building anything meaningful.
here are ideas i tried:
i will share more about my process in a later post.