Let the story unfold
https://unsplash.com/@sunnystate
On April 15, 1931, Plennie Wingo set out from Santa Monica California to break a world record; 8,000 miles and over a year later he would become the person to walk the furthest around the world… backwards. As I sat in the car listening to a podcast tell the story of Mr. Wingo, I was inspired to write a Sunday Starter about it so I pulled out my OneNote on my phone and jotted down a few notes.
Crazy goals - plennie wingo - walked backwards around the world
Initially, when he set out to accomplish his somewhat unique goal, I thought about how great it was that he wasn't letting anyone hold him back from his dreams. Sometimes people won't understand the things you want to achieve in life, but that doesn't mean you should listen to them. In the 1920s, unique goals like this apparently became a common thing - did you know a man pushed a peanut up a hill? I don't know why anyone would want to do that, but who am I to say they shouldn't? So that's what I was thinking in the first 20 minutes and that's what I jotted down.
Crazy goals - plennie wingo - walked backwards around the world
Never give up even when people don't believe in you.
As the story became more and more ridiculous, my tune started to change. He was arrested several times. His wife divorced him. Did I mention he was walking backwards around the world in a business suit and dress shoes?
Crazy goals - plennie wingo - walked backwards around the world
Never give up even when people don't believe in you.
Or maybe you should listen to the wise people in your life.
Listen to your wife.
sunk cost bias - "our tendency to continue investing in a losing proposition because of what it’s already cost us."
Know when to quit…
Plennie Wingo never made it to Santa Monica; in Istanbul, Turkey authorities told him he had to leave and sent him home. Can you imagine going that far and just not being allowed to continue? In the end, he didn't listen to anyone wise. He didn't give up or even decide to just cut his loses; he was shipped back to America. So what's the lesson to learn there? Sometimes our goals really are impossible? For someone who wrote a book about helping people achieve their impossible dreams, that one is a hard one to swallow.
Now that it's been a few weeks since I heard the story, I think I've landed on this: sometimes you just need to let the story unfold. When we're in it, it's not always easy to see what we'll learn from it because we don't have all the information yet. A year ago, right before I left my previous job, I wrote about Perspective and the idea of getting more data points. If you have a lot going on right now and you're trying to figure out what to learn from it, maybe you're just in the middle of the story. It's okay not to learn anything yet. It's okay if you don't know what to do yet. Take a breather, gather more data points, and let the story unfold.
