The Moonshot Trap
Hold the vision, live in reality
As a kid we’re sold the idea that we should GO FOR IT. Reach for the stars. Shoot your shot. Take risks. Get after your dreams. Go big or go home!
From Eminem and Hamilton to every Kindergarten classroom poster, we get the message that Dreaming is our duty. And that we only have one.
One dream. One song. One Big Break. One Passion. One thing that is The Thing. The One. You get one romantic partner, one passion, one job – one one one one.
Movies, TV shows, books, songs, and personal stories reinforce the narrative that there is Instant Magic when you find The One. When you lose yourself in the music the moment (iykyk). When you have eyes for no one and nothing else. When you make the grand gesture. When you quit your job and go all in. Go for it! TAKE THAT MOON SHOT or don’t even bother.
If you can’t go all in, you might as well do nothing.
The problem with the Only One Shot One Dream One One One approach is it’s wrong. And it’s keeping you from ever following through on your dreams, wishes, and desires.
The moonshot is standing *in the way* of meaningful work.
Moonshots cause paralysis.
Hold The Vision, Live in Reality
When The Thing becomes Too Important Too Big Too Critical TOO Meaningful TOO Impactful - we lose sight of what’s really going on.
We try to boil the ocean and end up starting lots of things we never finish, and then getting frustrated with ourselves and believing that perhaps it’s all over. It’s done. We *missed* our shot, missed our opportunity, missed our chance, missed The One Thing we could have done to infuse our life with meaning and purpose and fame and adoration and impact and significance and everything we were promised in kindergarten.
The reason moonshots cause paralysis is because you cannot go to the moon without first figuring out how to leave the ground. Which means before you can shoot for the moon you need to be the Wright brothers. And before you can be the Wright brothers you need to be Henri Giffard, Alberto Santos-Dumont, George Cayley, and Otto Lilienthal (source) who invented and tested gliders, hot air balloons, and flying boats.
They did not fail. They succeeded. They did the thing that most can’t do. They tried something that didn’t work. They tested an idea. They held the vision (the moon) and lived in reality (get one foot off the ground).
We hold the vision and live in reality.
That is how you get to the moon.
The Moonshot Trap
When you only focus on the Big Sexy Moonshot, you fall into a trap. The trap that says it’s all or nothing. The trap that says you’re either in or out - all in or not at all.
What gets us to our moon – what gets us to the place of alignment between our dream and our everyday reality - are tiny actions.
The moonshot isn’t the hard part. The hard part is having a day job in a patent office while still working on physics (Einstein). The hard part is writing one sentence a day when you haven't slept in 10 days (Margo). The hard part is knowing and clinging to the belief that what you are doing is enough. And that ANY doing is better than inaction.
It’s not “go big or go home,” it’s GO.
GO ANYWHERE.
Go small, left, right, up, down, backward, forward, in a circle, in a hole, on the roof, go to Seattle, go to Mumbai, go to the ice skating rink, go to carpool. It doesn’t matter where you go -- so long as you GO.
The lie is that you can “choose” the wrong Thing. That you will write the wrong book. Sell a screenplay that sucks. Pursue acting when you should have danced. Gone to grad school when you had the chance.
Wrong wrong wrong.
Every step you take, every move you make (h/t Diddy) is the right one.
Even and especially when it doesn’t feel like it.
Going after the thing inside of you that is burning to come out - THAT is the moonshot.
It's admitting the dream you want, holding tightly to the belief it’s possible, and daring to take one tiny action toward it.
Consistently. Persistently. Unapologetically.
Notes From The Road is brought to you by Brainstorm Road, a community organized around taking tiny actions toward your Dream Project.
Margo, I have been subscribed to That seems Important for almost exactly a year (I just checked) - since I read you bio on TCA, actually. Every single letter you have written has resonated, has been a 'Hell, yes!' Every single one. Starting with A Grammar Crisis which made me want to cheer, and through every word about our definitions of work and fun, and being female, and feeling our feelings, and F*$king Bruno. I always want to respond and tell you how much your words mean, but always feel like I don't really have words that are good enough or quite... exactly, big enough. Case in point, obvs. So, this is me just making sure you know that I read every letter as soon as I see it and it makes being human better. Richer. More. Thank you.
Yes. Brilliant and true, as always.