As a story teller, I often take off on a tangent. I layer patina in my narrative to create depth and richness, bringing my listener back to the original characters with a deeper understanding. This quality doesn’t work so well in other areas of life.
I am hungry so I go to the kitchen to make a breakfast of bacon and eggs. There is a sticky substance in the refrigerator. I look for a dishtowel to clean it up, but we are out of towels. I put a load of towels in the washing machine, and notice the floor needs vacuuming. When I go to get the vacuum cleaner from the hall closet, I notice how crammed it is with coats, many that we never wear. I pull out coats to take to the thrift store and load them in my car. My car is full of things from our last trip to the beach. The tangents continue to distract me until I stop and wonder, “Why am I so hungry?”
Leaving the real estate business on the back burner to pursue my passions has also been a series of tangents. I want to write and be creative. I also want to teach. Unfortunately, these pursuits don’t generate the income that my real estate career produced. I take detours from my path to finance our living expenses. It makes me unhappy. When I focus on the path of writing and creativity and on the path of teaching, happiness returns. I know that my finances will catch up with my desires, if I keep moving in my chosen direction.
Like a puppy who is chasing a ball and bringing it back, a squirrel holds a certain appeal. Out of the corner of our eye we see something and we want to go for it. With concentrated effort we ignore the squirrel, we ignore the tangents, and we stay on track – be it breakfast or a career change – and our lives are better.