A multiple Grammy award winning solo musical artist once let slip that the reason he did a certain album was so he’d be free to do the kind of music he really wanted.
“I had to do that…so I could this.”
It’s not that the make-money album was a bust. The related performance drew one of his many Grammy nominations.
But it really wasn’t the music he wanted to do. Yet he did it so he could be free to run with his artistic preferences in the future.
This reminds me of a Ziglarism: “If you do what you need to do when you need to do it, the day will come when you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.”
Delayed gratification, a foundational principle for all kinds of success, isn’t just about NOT doing something now. It’s also about DOING the right things in the present as a setup and preparation for the future.
Step away from the donut…and go for a walk.
