91: Little Jolt of Joy – Is Your Road to Hell An 8 Lane Super Highway?

The Road Paved with Good Intentions

Is your road to hell an eight-lane superhighway with great lighting, fantastic signage, and a beautifully landscaped median? This little jolt of joy has been sitting with me for a while, and I know it sounds like an odd topic for something called a jolt of joy, but stay with me.

The sheer volume of good intentions

If your brain works anything like mine, it is constantly, endlessly full of ideas. Not all of them are brilliant, but with that much volume, some genuinely are. At any given moment you might be holding grand plans for how your house should look, ideas for half a dozen businesses, intentions to get fit and healthy, thoughts about reaching out to someone you love or finally making that lunch date with your best friend. In the moment each idea arrives, it feels entirely possible, like this is the one you’ll actually pull off.

What happens in the gap

I genuinely believe, in the moment I say something out loud, that I’m going to make it happen. Whether that’s delusion or sincere intention, I’m not sure, but what happens in the space between the idea and the follow-through is never ill will and never a deliberate derailing. It just doesn’t happen the way we pictured.

Reframing the guilt

That old phrase about the road to hell being paved with good intentions sounds harsh, but isn’t it better to have an abundance of genuinely good intentions, even if not all of them reach a tidy conclusion, than to have none at all? Given the sheer number of ideas flowing through a brain like this at any moment, all vying equally for the top spot, it’s worth wondering whether what actually does get accomplished is pretty remarkable, considering the odds stacked against any single one of them. Maybe the guilt we carry over the ones that don’t get done isn’t proportionate to what’s actually happening. It’s not that the ideas get abandoned out of carelessness, it’s that there are simply too many wonderful ones competing at once, and that can become overwhelming enough to freeze you rather than move you.

Harnessing the flow instead of shaming it

Figuring out how to turn that abundance of ideas into actual action is really the whole ongoing project of managing a brain like this, and there’s no tidy formula for it. But there’s no need to be ashamed of that eight-lane superhighway of thoughts either. There’s something worth appreciating in that hopeful, optimistic flow, capture what you can, let the rest go gently, and when you’re able, let the people you love know just how much they occupy that busy, caring mind of yours.

I’m heading off on vacation, and my grand intention was to bank a few episodes ahead of time for you all. That didn’t happen, and I’m choosing not to feel guilty about it. I’m going to enjoy this time with my family and be back soon with more.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.