A few weeks ago, I took the time to set up some automations and boards on Trello. I needed to be able to visualize what I’d planned to write and what the status was of each piece. Trying to track everything manually had been a nightmare.
If you look at my situation superficially, it’s easy to say that the goal of my Trello setup was to eliminate the poor organization and tracking and subsequent time loss. You might focus on tackling pain points yourself in your work, especially with a customer-oriented or marketing focus.
But solving the organization/tracking/time problem — that is, eliminating the pain point and simply achieving neutral — wasn’t the goal. The goal was to go beyond the pain point toward something better, to grow and be able to achieve new things.
Gurus talk all the time about the need to have a deeper why in work. Yet, as we work within systems where rewards come primarily for concrete achievements, do we somehow still forget that solving the problem is not all there is, that there is a beyond, a vision that we’re supposed to be going after?
There’s nothing wrong with celebrating a milestone or recognizing the effort you put in on the way to success. But when you have clarity about what you want life beyond a problem to look like, something magical happens. The vision of beyond helps to keep the stress of the problem in perspective, and you can stay motivated. Celebrating is no longer limited to what you’ve done, but rather becomes applicable to the way you and the world now are.
As Christians, our vision of beyond the problem is informed by God’s character, will, and Word. It is by staying focused on the bigger picture of what can be through Him that we can retain enough motivation to persist no matter what problems might need solving over the course of our journey. As you encounter difficulties, remember that hope sits not in smoothing the path, but in reaching where we are destined to go.