Paul Lester Photo

I remember a scene from a movie, The Peaceful Warrior. In it, Nick Nolte, as Socrates, a modern day philosopher is trying to teach his student, Dan Millman about goals and expectations. He tells Dan that he has something to show him once they get to the top of the hill. So, Dan is quite excited and follows Socrates for several hours. Finally, he’s had about enough and they finally crest the hill. He asks Socrates what it was that was so important. He wanted to see this all important thing. Socrates looks around and then finally points at a rock on the ground and says “Right there! That’s it!”. Of course Dan goes ballistic and is greatly disappointed. Then Socrates makes that point that Dan was enjoying the journey all the way up to the top, but then when he got there, to the goal, the goal was anticlimactic. Dan, at that time, had only one thing on his mind, winning the Olympic gold medal and that was his obsession. He wasn’t enjoying the competition, training, or anything along the way. He just had his eye on end. He thought that getting the gold would be the one thing that made him happy! He learned a valuable lesson that day.

I was reading Gordon’s blog today and he talked about the burnout that he was feeling and that he has basically finished and is glad. On Anita’s blog, she was talking about wanting to do more, perhaps as many as four books per year. She also mentioned a brass ring, in other words, the goal. Nothing wrong with goals, to be sure. Just don’t miss out on the fun in between the beginning and the end.

As for me, I’m a bit tired right now. There are lots of things happening in my personal life and the book requires nice, clean energy, of which there seems to be precious little of right now. However, that said, I am still enjoying the process, but sometimes hit a lull. All it takes to clear some of those clouds is to look back into the book, gaze at some of the pictures, and remember the fun time that I’m having doing it. Sure, I want to finish just because I set out to do it, but the journey has been so valuable and rewarding in and of itself. Also, I’m glad to be part of the first group out of the gate. I think that all of the sharing has provided a unique bit of learning as well as a good amount of camaraderie.

Would I want to do another book in a month? No! I think that, for me, the joy comes in the process, not by finishing. I think that I am feeling a little burnout myself, which is why I have switched gears a couple of times and went to shoot elsewhere, or have actually taken my camera and just sat without taking pictures. There is a joy in listening to the wind cruise through the leaves of the trees without any particular goal in mind.