My job is to reel.
Every day, for as many hours as I can muster.
I can hear Bonefish Patrick shouting from his poling platform!
Take a minute to envision a flywheel. Now envision the fly line is endless. The more you reel, the more you collect on your reel. This is our experience with information. The information we gather lays atop the past-gathered line, building on itself. We expand in circumference. What is on the end of the line, we often don’t know. Sometimes the water is clear, and we can see it. Sometimes the wind is at our face, with overcast clouds above, and we don’t quite know what we are reeling in. Yet, we must reel.
I find it soothing when I know that my job is simply to reel.
It’s the days that I listen to the noise, that I am jarred.
What if this is the wrong information?
What am I going to do with this information?
I’ll never be "X," so why do I need to learn "Z?"
Will I ever need this or am I wasting time?
Etc., etc.
This voice lies. We all hear it. It brings about doubt. It wastes so much time for so many people. They stop reeling with their hand and reel endlessly in their own doubts. Paralyzed.
I've spent the majority of my life reminding that voice that it has no place in my experience. Yet some days it still wins. The most important thing to do when that happens is to go somewhere quiet. Somewhere that it's only you and those thoughts. Quiet them. Breathe. And listen for that other voice..... It's Bonefish Patrick in the distance…
“Reel, reel, reel."
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