Things will always wear out and break down, but focusing just a little effort on cleaning your things, put them away in cases, and keeping them safely aside. It only takes moments, but it’s something that many of us overlook.
Keeping the car washed and oiled will keep it running and looking nice for years longer than somebody who doesn’t do either one of those things.
Adversity brings strength. When you feel pain, it’s almost always because you’re getting stronger or you’re learning. In the fog of war, it’s usually hard to see what you’re learning or how you’re being strengthened so be careful not to brush off all pain as a “stupid inconvenience” because it’s not immediately clear how you can learn from it.
When you're going through hell, sometimes it can be beneficial to stop and figure out why you got there so you don't have to keep running through it.
Don’t run from the scary things or the pain. When you run from pain, you wear the pain in your life in all you do.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I used to know somebody who would save the food they liked most on their dinner plate for last. They ate the stuff they didn’t enjoy first.
Never made sense to me. I will derive maximum enjoyment from the food I like most if I eat it first and I can eat all of it without worrying about getting full. The other stuff gets fit in around what I’ve already eaten.
The same is pretty much the case with work. You might think putting off important tasks is better because you can build momentum and roll through those tasks.
But it’s a dangerous game. Will power is a limited resource and it wanes. You might get to the early afternoon and be ready to start the important work, but your willpower is at zero so you spend the afternoon procrastinating.
Eat the good food and do the important work first!
Don’t give the answer. It’s too easy and nobody learns anything. Sure, it’s annoying when ALL you ever do is ask a question in response to being asked a question, but save this tactic for situations where you really care about the person and want them to learn.
When you discover the answer, it lives within you. When you’re fed the answer, it comes out of you with the rest of whatever you ate.
Every project you do is a block of little tasks. Do lots of little tasks well and life becomes easy.
We look at blocks of work and think it’s too much so we procrastinate and get nothing done. We want an easy solution and instant results. There is no such thing. There is no getting around the work.
There is no quick solution to anything. Plant the tree today and stop stressing about not planting it 20 years ago.
Line up small tasks and start knocking them down. One at a time. Time is leaving you, either way, you might as well use it to do something productive. In three months, all the little tasks will have made massive differences.
You can only keep examining the data, write to-do lists, or plan the overall strategy of your company so many times before it’s a complete waste. Usually once is enough for each of those things.
It is the coward’s way out to keep turning to “laying the groundwork” or doing “planning” instead of jumping in and doing the real work that matters.
You must have the courage to begin and if you don’t have it, you must pretend like you have it and blind yourself to what scares you.
The coward dies every time he fails because of his cowardice, but the brave man dies only once.
Just because something is scary, difficult, or not fun is no reason for you not to do it if it’s the right thing to do. This is the work that matters. The work that will change your life.
The thing we worry about never happens. It just doesn’t. What happens is unexpected stuff that is far more damaging and it’s made more damaging because we’re worried, paralyzed, or stockpiling resources against a boogeyman.
What is the thing that you can do with relative ease that other people find very difficult? That’s what you can do. That’s probably what you should do.
When we allow the pressure to determine the priority of the tasks we get done, we will never have the time and energy for the important stuff.
The pressure always favors yesterday. Pressure favors the crisis, not the opportunity.
Nearly all great success has less to do with being able to check things off of your to-do list and everything to do with the courage to go after the opportunity.
But we never prioritize or enable ourselves to chase opportunities when we allow pressure to determine the most important tasks.
Do we have expectations that can be met by mere men? When we create jobs or tasks, is it possible for the average person to complete the task?
We must take care not to defeat our peers, subordinates, children, or spouse with tasks or expectations that no man can meet.
However, you need to be the one who can look humbly and wisely into what the person has accomplished and determine, based upon that, what is likely they could achieve in the future. We’re generally lousy auditors of ourselves.
While we want tasks and expectations to be reasonable, they must not be without a challenge. The challenge will bring out whatever strength your subject has–if you dare to press him.
It’s all a balancing act. There is a fire in the belly of young people, but if it’s is not well-managed, it will lead to burn-out by early middle age.
I read about a military commander who explained to his men that in every battle there is a simple formula to victory. You have two sides and both are straining. Both want to give up. Yet, whoever doesn’t give up wins.
That’s life (but without the bullets flying around.)
Self-doubt, distraction, hedonism, laziness, procrastination, and vice all are pushing against you. If you want to achieve your goals, you need to push back and never give up. When you give up, you lose.
In all that you do, investments, hiring people, new business ventures, etc… pick people and things based on their strength and upside, not some flaw you see in them. You will find a flaw in all things, but not all things have a strength or excellence in a narrow field.
The perfect man or perfect situation doesn’t exist. Take a “well-rounded person”, he is simply one who does not excel in any one specific area. It’s the safe pick, but the pick that ensures mediocrity.
The cost of the mountain top is the valley that comes with it.
Make choices based on strengths and upside. Don’t make choices based on weakness and downside.
I have lots to say, but so much is the words in between the important stuff.
I’m reiterating to myself that I need to tighten up these blog posts. If the words aren’t better than silence, do I need to write them?
Low expectations are backbreaking. Low expectations keep you from getting after it. They keep you from exerting extraordinary force when it is needed and they keep you from giving all you have to achieve the goal you set out to master.
If you demand little from yourself, you will grow very little (and very slowly!)
If you demand more of yourself, you will grow into something truly great. You will build something bigger than you ever imagined. And you will do all of that while working just as hard as the person who asked little of themself.
When you hold yourself to the highest standard with the greatest expectations, you free yourself from self-sabotage and you inspire the support of your helpers and peers.
There is the old biblical saying from the apostle Paul when he says “He who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Don’t stop short in your expectations, ask more of yourself and you’ll receive more in the end.
When I first got into design and photography, I didn’t see the point in practicing hand drawing, sketch work, or much “manual” illustration. My mindset was that there surely had to be some automated preset, some special Photoshop brush, or some feature/function of the program to instantly do all that manual stuff.
It really stunted my growth and development for the first 7-10 years of being a designer.
It’s right there in the name “artist”. This stuff is an art, not a science. It’s not rigid, it’s organic, handmade, and flowing from the human. When you watch an artist work, he uses one resource more than any other–time. He uses his time to painstakingly paint the textures, splatter the edges, apply details, and highlights.
There is no shortcut, there is no one-click solution, and there is no way to replicate the analog nature of what comes from your hand. You have to use your hands to create, not the software. The software may be a tool, but always let it be a tool in your hand.
The artist’s shortcut is not a button click. The artist’s shortcut is recognizing early in life that there is no substitute to sitting and working for hours to create something amazing. You will save years as soon as you realize that.
What’s the point of self-discipline? It seems to inflict pain on us, but what for?
It’s the long game. It’s the preparation for what comes next week, next month, next year. You’re building the muscles in your mind and your will to be ready to do the difficult and painful thing. If you train yourself to take the easy way out and enjoy immediate gratification, you will be a subject to every vice that walks by.
If you train yourself to delay gratification, you prepare yourself to avoid the pitfalls of life while having the toughness to get up after being knocked down.
Start with small things. Force yourself to wait to open that package, just because. Force yourself to get up 15 minutes earlier, just because. Force yourself to go to sleep 30 minutes earlier, just because. Eat no sugar tomorrow, just because. Take a cold shower, run a mile, embrace the uncomfortable task, shut off social media, ignore emails, texts, and notifications. Any of these things is a start.
In the moment, when it’s difficult and you want to quit, remember that you’re playing the long game. If it hurts at the moment, it’s working. Keep going.
Those who are obedient always see themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly. I read that somewhere a while ago and it’s an interesting idea.
I have to disagree with the line of thinking that ends with obedience being the mark of cowardice. You may be obedient because you believe it is the morally upright thing to do. You may value the order that comes with obedience. You may see some greater end which you’re willing to sacrifice present comforts/wants to attain.
I do agree with this assessment when falling in line and being obedient is done for selfish ends. “It’s easier to not question the expectations or the narrative so I’ll get in line and shut up.” That is cowardice.
When people who are “obedient” put themselves forward as being virtuous, it’s likely a big flashing light that they’re just a coward.
I think that it's far more likely that the true motive of the obedient person tells the real story. If only we could see the real motives of the people all around us…
There is no shortcut, no system, no trick. The answer is to work harder. You have to work, work, work, and then work even more when you’re a little tired.
No amount of thinking about a problem will get it done. You have to go and get to work.
Stop waiting until work feels fun. Stop waiting until it feels like the perfect time. Stop waiting until you’re not afraid.
Everything you want requires you to work. Not the kind of work where you show up at 9am and have a boss who tells you what to do. That is kind of work.
However, what I’m specifically referring to is when that work-with-oversight is finished and you come home and have a side project that you know you should be spending time on, but you choose to watch Netflix instead. If you want to take your life to where you want it to go, there is no substitute for working hard and being a self-starter. Work, work, work.
If you can look at yourself and see how the mistake happened, your life will constantly be moving in a direction that makes things easier, less stressful, and much more understandable.
It’s all about the details. The little reach down for the french fry on the floor of your car almost caused you to cross into oncoming traffic. A little mental note to never do that again will prevent future catastrophe.
Taking five minutes before bed to lay out tomorrow’s work will help you feel in control of your day from the jump tomorrow.
Changing the oil you cook with to something with a higher smoke point will help keep that smoke detector from blaring every time you decide to sauté something.
But if we choose to get angry and defensive as if there is nothing we can do to make things better, we choose a more difficult life instead of a more accountable life.