How to Be a Cargo Ship

Check your manifest. Are you focused on what to-do, or To-Be?

Recently I sat on a quiet spot of the California coast. A handful of seagulls kept me company, as I tracked a trickle of cargo ships on the ocean. I thought of how busy I’ve been over the past few years. And the incredible pace I see from friends and colleagues, even if only a social media slice of life. I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of videos and advertisements exhorting me to do more, more ways to hustle, generate, produce.

I took a deep breath, and let it out with the slow sound of a wave, and wondered:

What if I were a cargo ship, instead?

One of the really big ones. Gigantic on the ocean, carrying hundreds of containers on deck. Moving slowly and purposefully towards a port farther than an hour or a day away. Perhaps taking weeks before arrival.

I imagined the power of being such a thing. Taller than a building. Longer than the Great Pyramid on one side. Pushing through the waves. Carrying so much value. And thinking, only a little, about the occasional storm.

Imagine knowing you carried such incredible value

Cargo ships carry the fortunes of entire corporations, sometimes even countries, on their decks. You carry your investments and efforts on your own shoulders. Goods that represent hours of work, feats of intelligence, streams of dreams - made more valuable by your commitment to deliver them to someone and someplace where it can matter.

Imagine being a cargo ship so purposeful, a single arrival of You made a massive difference!

Buzzing Bees of the Coastline

Of course, you might think: Isn’t that what I do now? To a degree, on a different scale. My calendar often looks like I’m piloting a little feeder ship, quick and fleeting going from port to port, customer to customer, sale to sale. Daily drop-offs, weekly meetings, regularly scheduled arrivals and departures. A kind of “ocean mailman” who shows up like a busy-bee, bringing quick-found pollen to be turned into a short-acting sugar high.

Buzzing, snappy, hustling, non-stop.

It’s Time to Set a Larger Sail

Many years ago, as a young, excitable entrepreneur, I had lots of ideas on how to be busy. Pages of products and plans and processes kept me running from place to place, customer to customer. My manifest was full, sometimes even overloaded, to the point of saying every October:

“Who created this insane schedule? I can’t do this again!”

Which of course, I had, and which I did, again, year after year.

Learning to Manifest

Thank goodness I had a wise mentor, who took me under his wing early in my career, helping me learn about the business, and importantly, myself. One day at lunch, I began breathlessly rattling off ideas for doing this, that and the next thing.

I must have sounded manic.

“And then we’ll put videos online; and package them into series. We start a weekly live show on Monday. I crunched numbers over the weekend for doing multi-city tour. If we start a membership club, we can monetize the attendees. Plus social media will target audiences and generate leads - dozens a day - to convert into coaching clients, and….”

And on and on I went. Never mind what I was already doing, full time, traveling, speaking, writing, coaching and running a business, getting married, buying a house, and occasionally pausing for a day (okay, half-day) off.

David waited until I noticed he had finished his lunch, and I hadn’t taken a bite. Then he asked one question:

"Why are you here?"

“To get your feedback,” I said.

“No,” he said. “Why are you here. Why do you want to do all that stuff.”

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. I knew the usual talking points weren’t right. To make money? To be popular? To change the industry? To win an award? Those are the table stakes of any endeavor, really. Because anybody can do them, given enough time and money.

David was challenging me to answer: What for?

“Right now, you think the more you do, the more you’ll do,” he said. “Sure: You can show up busy. Make lots of money. Be seen, admired, sell stuff, get hired. And you’ll do a good job, too: People will benefit. So you won’t be doing anything wrong.

But will you be doing what’s right?

David smiled and said: “Put aside your to-do list and think about your to-be list. Ask yourself: What’s the right thing for you to be, as a result of any busyness? Don’t worry whether it’s what the business needs: Anybody can take care of those to-dos. If all it took to grow were longer task-lists, everyone would be further along than they ever get.”

“I’m guessing,” he said, “that what the world needs - what you need - isn’t another busy thing. It needs you to set sail to do the right thing.”

A Big Thing

I remember taking some time to think about that question: What’s the right thing - a big thing - I want to happen when I “show up” each day? For myself, friends, family, clients, even my little corner of the world. Knowing I was showing up to one port - not the whole coast or country - bringing something valuable.

And people were happy to see me arrive on the horizon.

That image has served me well over the years, even as the contents of the cargo changed with the times. The knowledge that it’s really my presence that is the present. It has steered me back on track every time I’ve been blown off course. Tempted to be busier. It has helped me know certain jobs, projects, customers are for me!

As well as which aren’t.

And though I’ve burned the candle at both ends, many times, like a bad learner who only gets better rough seas, I’m grateful it’s been for projects and people that excite, energize, challenge me. And when it’s over, I come back to port, and ask:

What shall be on my manifest next? It better be big.

For a candle with no wax is a wick that makes no difference in the dark.

The Manifest Cargo: You

Think back to when you started your most recent journey. How did you answer,

Why are you here?

— To generate leads?
— To send emails?
— To work without a contract?
— To answer calls after 9 pm?
— To miss family events?
— To make videos about interest rates?
— To beat the competition (whom you didn’t know, nor they you)?

Now look at your calendar for the last two days/weeks/months/years and ask yourself:

Have you been shipping the right stuff?

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

As I watched the cargo ships sail over the horizon, I noticed a bunch of smaller boats closer to shore, going to and fro at breakneck speed. It’s time to check the manifest again, I realized. I’ve been acting more like one of those little feeder ships lately. Perhaps worse, I thought, as I noticed some “bees on the seas” - a swarm of uncoordinated waterskis with no cargo space at all, noisily tossed about by the waves.

In an hour, they’ll return to where they started. They will run out of gas.

Meanwhile, that big ship will keep going for the next month - bringing something big somewhere it will really matter.

The ancient philosopher Seneca wrote: We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do.

How to be a Container Ship

What shall I contain?
What shall I deliver?

Where shall I go?

For people like me, who are the product, containing our training, experience, knowledge and efforts, the only answer is: I shall contain myself.

I shall bring to each day only that which best manifests when I’m not busy. The contribution that starts with a deep breath, isn’t spoken in the shortest amount of text, and lingers in the mind longer than a viral-moment.

A container that delivers value with purpose.

That friends see and cheer me, saying:

That’s what you ought to be doing

A container ship for the things I can do that make a difference.
A course that doesn’t let little waves push me from arriving where I ought.
A cargo destined, not for every port, nor every day. Only the right customers, colleagues, co-missioners who are excited to receive it, even amplify it.

A moment of time well spent.

Sending waves of impact far over the horizon.

So busy being that which I ought to be, that
everything else can go on someone else’s to-do list.