Notes from my second reading of Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable, by Tim S. Grover.
These are my notes and thoughts after reading the preface, which is titled “A Note from Tim Grover.”
A Note from Tim Grover
Core message of the book: regardless of accomplishment, the mentality is “I’m going to come back even better. I’m not satisfied.” Page xvii.
He explicitly is not telling me what to do, what actions to take in order to accomplish my goals.
Why should anyone want to be told what to do? The whole point of this book is that in order to be successful, to truly have what you want in your life, you must stop waiting to be told what to do and how to do it. Your goals, your decisions, your commitment. If you can’t see the end result, how can anyone else see it for you?
Relentless, by Tim Grover, page xvii. Emphasis added.
The succinct marching orders:
Tell yourself what to do, and stop waiting for others to lay it all out.
Relentless, by Tim Grover, page xviii.
Comment. Life is infinite and the paths are infinite. There are patterns but choosing among the variations within the patterns is up to me.
Remember: I started down this career path saying “I will work out of my head and my phone, in X.” (X being my niche business target, picked at semi-random from slight exposure to it.) That was my explicit goal and there was no checklist for getting there. In fact, the business model was and still is quite the opposite: overhead-laden, paper-heavy, risk-averse, etc.
I picked up clues and did trial/error to get where I am now. And my goal is the horizon, always out of reach. How far I have come, and how far I can go! There is no “I got there.”
I have been a big planner, checklist guy. That’s useful in many situations. Not all. My strength is marching toward the horizon and never stopping.
Reminder to self: the action steps have become visible when you have been in motion. The actionable suggestions have come from people around you, as you have been visibly in motion. Go. Just go. And adjust as you go, always aiming for the horizon.