How is it we define mission? Everyone has one, only more people define it by goals: to better themselves, better others- but are all goals achieved? Of course not. When one is set, it should be achievable- slightly out of reach- but with genuine effort be obtained. All contribute to the mission, success or failure.
My mission when I started Best Bar Wednesdays was to simply follow a pre-established order of bars as stated by the book, “The History & Stories of the Best Bars in New York”- visit each one and have an “experience”. The experience could take the form of a historical reference, becoming friends with strangers, the discovery of holes inside myself; it could be of any form as long as it became an experience.
As I close in on the last dozen bars, my obligations have increased, my funds have dwindled, and time limits have been strained, I find an alteration to the plan must be found. Time has shortened, adjustments necessary. No mission has ever been completed without adjustments and a question rises, “at what point do you abandon a mission?”
The answer is never. You can change, re-adjust or put it temporarily to the side, but you can’t quit. You plug away- over and over like an obsessive fiend until one day you find it’s complete. It’s no easy matter.
When I was in college I studied in a psychology course: motivation and morale. It was taught be a German professor who was here from Europe to give recommendations to the school. He deliberately made himself a teacher to see how students would react to his teaching methods. The students taught the class as he sat to the side like a psychologist with his patients. Your job was to thoroughly go through two chapters in the book, support the subject with case studies and know them backwards and forwards. The result would be a paper on your understanding of that topic and would be 75% of your grade, the other 25% made up of your teaching method. As you were up there, if he saw any sign of your not knowing what you were indeed talking about, he’d rip you apart- humiliate you.
The first day of class he asked me why I bought a Ford Mustang. I gave him some lame answer about it being economical, so he called me up to the board and further drilled me. “List the pros and the cons”, he says. I wrote maybe three under each. I was rather shy in college, so you can imagine how horrifying this was especially for the first day with a bunch of strangers. He sat on the edge of the room and grilled me for the next 20 minutes in front of everyone until he came to the REAL reason I bought my car- “to pick up women and listen to loud music”. I asked to sit down and remembered when I approached my desk; how everyone had their heads sunk low to avoid further questions. Half the students dropped the class by the next lesson.
It was a harsh lesson in realism. I’d never been humiliated like that, but would never allow it to happen again. I’d be prepared for that class, no matter what else pended in others. Bottom line was I learned more there than anything else in school. I’m sure if you went back and asked other “survivors”, they’d remember it the most.
It’s those people who pick themselves up, brush off the shit, and move forwards who succeed. There are always alternatives and when your back is up against the wall, it’s your mission to find the escape- not quit- but find another path. No one respects quitters. Think outside the box and when the pressure becomes too much- walk. Walking is great therapy- redirect, redefine, reclassify, revise then return. Pressure passes.
Originally, one bar a day allowed me to take a complete picture. It gave me time to utilize my senses, observation skills, engage in conversation and not abandon it too soon- but as with life, time is often defined by limited moments.
The New York Minute squeezes as much as possible into every minute of every day. Fox Five used to present a series of shorts all in one minute- it can be done. I call my minutes New York Minutes because going forward I’ll push more into each moment and include more than one bar. The total length of time will be cut and hopefully the bar bill also- a better solution for the long run. In the end I hope to have something to say, when I see the big picture. If not, I have a hardcore belief that Nothing is ever for Nothing….