Pivot Fatigue
I’m reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries as part of my fellowship. It’s a helpful model for creating a project, launching an initiative, or changing something big.
One of the core concepts is “pivot or persevere.”
As I discussed this with my group, I confessed that I have pivot fatigue. The constant changes of the past year and a half, the last-minute overhauls, the never-ending download of information that causes us to rethink everything - it’s all getting to me.
I’m exhausted.
Ries suggests that we need to redefine productivity. That’s what I am having to do. I take very small steps because (1) that’s all the energy I have and (2) I don’t know if my plan is even going to be viable tomorrow, let alone next year.
I am learning to accept this and even welcome it.
Some other things that help:
Making a reverse to-do list (eg In retrospect, what did I accomplish today?)
Leaning heavily on the vision
Investing in creativity, rest, and exercise that have nothing to do with the project
Refining my pitch for the project (because that helps me focus the steps)
Finding supportive people in unexpected places (this takes some digging but is worth the effort
All that to say, the need to pivot won’t go away. So I’m finding ways to energize in the midst of it so I can keep going.
