In his short book, Seth Godin described “The Dip” as

The Dip is the long stretch between beginner’s luck and real accomplishment. It’s the set of artificial screens set up to keep people like you out.

This is a slightly mysterious introduction to the meat of the message of this book, which is how to be intentional about knowing when to stick with something vs. our default condition of losing steam.

The phrase “artificial screens to keep people like you out” can be interpreted many ways, but in my experience, those “screens” are me finding excuses to lose interest when the going gets tough.

• Losing steam by default is my habit (and I suspect the habit of many other mere mortals) with side projects.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.

Suffice it to say that my Abandoned Ideas Forest has thousands of holes–evenly distributed among those defiant tree trunks.

As I have struggled all weekend to implement what should be a simple Mindery feature, I have flirted with The Side Project Dip–that trough of sorrow and self-doubt that is inevitable as we transition from “the madness” about a new idea into the grind of doing the hard work. What made this round less miserable was laughing at myself as my mind started to jump to

There are other project ideas that are more interesting right now. Why don’t I just put this on the shelf?

I laughed even harder when I looked at that shelf, which is buckling under the weight of the dozens of incomplete “good ideas” that were solo side projects I abandoned during previous descents into The Side Project Dip.

The Reality

Side-projects are hard–just like worthwhile accomplishments at work, school and in our relationships are hard. It would be really magical if they weren’t, but that’s why it’s called “magic,” eh?

• All this stuff is hard; that’s our reality.

My Light Bulb: Accountability

This isn’t a solo project I can quietly shelve. I’m part of the Elixirized team, and that means I am accountable to my teammates. One would think this should not be a light bulb moment for me; after all, I have had day jobs–and a family–for a few decades, so accountability and I are old friends.

In the context of side projects, however, this is new for me. This is not just another solo project, so I can’t just slink off to the next shiny idea.

• Part of me doesn’t like that (being that I’m a mere mortal and all), but another part of me is energized by it.

And Now … Back to the Grind

Writing this has been a nice diversion (and what I love to pretend is a productive form of procrastination) while my brain escaped the hard labor of conjuring working software from vague ideas and my primordial command of the discipline.

Such is the siren song of The Dip, but I will stubbornly resist further temptation and get back to the exquisite torture of the grind.

Because … you know … THEY are watching. And waiting.