How often do we find ourselves enthusiastically starting some new venture, project or friendship, only to have it 'fade away' within a very short time?

As I sometimes (and perhaps too often) do, I was surfing the web a bit, this morning. And I noticed how many blogs and web sites are a 'hive of activity' for a few weeks and months, and then.... nothing.

I kept noticing all these 'abandoned projects.' Then I came back to the TruJournal site, and started noticing the many people who'd signed up here, posted a couple of journal entries... and disappeared.

In 'another life,' I used to write about business ventures, and working from home. The single most frequent phrase I heard-- in connection with people giving up on some new venture-- was 'It didn't work!'

Whoa.

Hang on a sec.

What?

Most often, the REAL answer was that 'YOU didn't work,' not that 'IT didn't work.'

It made me ponder our tendency to always look to 'The Next Great Thing' as something that might provide answers to the riddles of our lives. In our fast-paced, 10-second sound byte, ADHD-ish society we've almost become ADDICTED to getting to 'the next thing,' no matter what it is. I watch people approach 'new' almost like it's an addiction to heroin; abandoning perfectly worthwhile ventures to get that 'injection' of feeling that goes with 'I'm involved in something NEW! Look at me!'

Then it made me ponder the more metaphysical aspects of the equation. We drop down inside the whole 'Creating Reality' and 'visualization' gig, and claim we're using 'The Secret' to finding whatever it is we're looking for... and then we give up, because it doesn't show up in a FedEx box, a week later. Metaphorically speaking, if you want to 'get on the gravy train,' you might have a better chance if you actually went and stood BY THE TRAIN TRACKS.

But I'm digressing.

Lest I am coming across as 'an old stick-in-the-mud,' let me assure you I'm all in favor of growth, changes and new things. Many are amazing and helpful.

What I feel less enthusiastic about is the endless jumping from here to there and all over the place... because it tends to support a pattern of lacking thought, commitment, mindfulness and intent. I sense a lack of inner knowing there, as I observe... the only 'strategy' I can make out is one of 'If I just try ENOUGH random things, maybe I'll find the right one.'

But there's the rub: How would you know 'the right one?' How would you recognize the difference between 'right' and 'momentary infatuation?'

When I wrote for the entrepreneurial press it was a generally accepted principle (even though we rarely wrote about it-- 'put a positive spin on everything! We want readers to believe they will succeed! Success sells ad space!') that 90% of businesses failed because their founders failed to give their ventures enough time to succeed. The business graveyard was littered with great ideas thrown away because their creators gave up when there was no mansion and new Mercedes in the driveway, after six months.

Ideas, I might add, that would handily have bought aforesaid mansion and Mercedes (if that's your gig) after two or three YEARS.

In many ways, these principles of business can be applied to many areas of our lives... from finding inner peace, to finding meaning, to starting a spiritual practice, to finding an amazing relationship.

Stay the Course.

Creating our lives, dreams... and by extension, realities... *works.*

However... the notion that Creating Reality comes with an 'fast and easy button?' That's a purely human construct.

In a sense, it is allowing our 'spoiled and precocious inner five-year old' to take over the driver's seat of our lives.