So, a few of you know it’s been a rough couple of weeks. First, my teaching platform got hacked and my entire teaching site went down. I lost a month’s worth of work. That was two weeks ago. Last week, I discovered my cancer has come back. I began treatment this week and it basically eats up half my day. I also had to do a funeral this week. (Besides my coaching and consulting work, I am a part time Methodist pastor) and spent a chunk of one day sitting at the deathbed of another person.

For someone who believes in goals, setting them and working them, I’ve been knocked way off schedule. I got stuff to do. Places to go. Goals to crush. I didn’t have time for all this.

But here’s what I have learned in life and work. I no longer live and die by schedules in my own goals any longer. Life happens. So if I miss an internal deadline, that’s OK. I just keep going.

You see, it’s about progress. Not timetables. At the end of the day, at the end of the week, I stop and I ask one question. It’s not “Did I crush all my goals this week.” Nope, that approach can be great when you meet all the goals. But it can crush our spirit if we don’t. Particularly when life blows up on us.

The Question

No, the question I ask is “Did I make progress?” That question still holds me accountable for moving forward. But without the temptation to let my inner critic beat me up if I don’t meet the precise deadline.

And, even in the craziest of times, we can do things, even small things, that can move us forward. And at the end of the week, you are a few steps closer. You can feel good about that. You have a sense of victory, even when life seems to have been conspiring to beat you back.

And that my friend, is victory.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom