3 min read

I was sitting at one of my favorite cafes finishing up a few hours of work and thinking about how many things I still had to get done.

The next few tasks seemed daunting and required motivation that I just wasn’t feeling at the time. I packed up my bag, walked outside, and decided that a walk may wake me up and get my brain back in a place of productivity.

I walked a block before noticing that it suddenly looked like it was going to rain.

I walked another half of a block and felt a few rain drops.

Before I had finished that second block, I was stuck inside a torrential downpour – two blocks from the cozy cafe I had just left.

I started laughing – really laughing. It’s a totally weird reaction, and I didn’t expect it. But it was so funny to me that this was the reality I was experiencing.

As I’m laughing, I think “OK, I’ll duck into Biscuit & Branch for happy hour and get some work done.” I had done this just a few days earlier.

Then it starts spitting hail. I laughed even harder.

It was so bizarre because just hours earlier, I had cringed as I turned off my air conditioning, knowing the current heat was going to make my apartment unbearable upon my return. It’s been in the high 80s for days. And now, here I am, in a hail storm.

Folks are sprinting around the area trying to get to their car, their apartment, underneath a dry awning, anything to escape this assault. No one is smiling. In fact, they are looking at me like I’ve lost my mind.

I duck under the awning by Biscuit & Branch. They are, apparently, closed on Mondays. At this point, the nearest establishment to escape the rain is a bar I really don’t care for.

So smiling like an idiot, I wait out the storm underneath the awning – occasionally getting hit by raisin-sized hail.

This whole scene lasted all of 10 minutes after I had left that cafe. The rain let up, I quickly jogged back to the cafe (soaked) and ordered a coffee. I had found my motivation.

After I got back to the cafe and ordered a coffee, the rain never started again. The whole thing was bizarre, and as I reflected, I think I laughed for a couple of reasons.
  1. I know I can’t control everything. I couldn’t control the fact that I was caught in a 10-minute Ohio hail storm in the middle of June, where the temperature has been in the high-80s for a week. So why get upset?
  2. I had left the cafe to do some “fake work” to avoid doing the things I really needed to get done. I left in the exact 10 minute window that would eliminate that option. You got me, universe!

What’s my point? (and I know I’m making a bit of a stretch here)

Don’t leave motivation up to the universe. Instead of getting caught in a unseasonal hail storm, join a community of folks who are working hard and will inspire you to action through their own action.

Unreal Collective creates micro-communities to accelerate your growth. It is designed for individuals who are committed to accelerating their own growth – the growth of themselves and their projects. We are looking for folks who are driven and ambitious, but also generous and empathetic – regardless of your project or experience.

I’ll be sharing more this week about the lessons I’ve learned over the past two years that I’ve baked into Unreal Collective to help you get from where you are now to where you want to be.

There’s only room for 10 new folks to join and get the benefits of surrounding themselves with some unreal individuals, and applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. Get movin!