
Tying your shoes.
Putting gas in your car.
Making dinner.
There are plenty of these, small, simple tasks that are part of living. You don’t have to think about them and you don’t have to plan very much. There isn’t any strategy involved, really.
Of course, for some reason, we sometimes approach big tasks the same way—like diet, exercise, or investing.
Larger objectives require a different approach. They often require a slower pace, smaller progress, and sometimes even a less clear way to monitor progress.
Larger objectives must be met with a long-term focus and the understanding that they can and will, in fact, be accomplished. Sometimes this belief is founded in being able to see the path and sometimes it’s founded in knowing that you couldn’t possibly give up.
I think there is a huge number of people who believe that accomplishing big things is purely about willpower. I disagree. It’s partially about willpower, but it’s also about being in a situation and a long-term mindset where willpower is effective.
The wind is pretty useless without a sail.
Understanding those situations and the paths to them is equally, if not, more important than willpower or the motivation to make them happen. Motivation is often a daily experience.
Zig Ziglar used to say something like:
“Motivation is like bathing, it’s required daily.”
Motivation is like inspiration. It’s temporary and will fly away as soon as you need it the most. It can’t be trusted. Instead, we seek to build systems that help us use what wind power is available and accept the variance in pace as part of the journey. We even rely on others to stay accountable and help prevent us from hiding from our goals.
What a challenge this is. I hate variable pace. I hate going slow. I hate asking people for things. I hate when progress isn’t linearly pointing up and to the right.
Yet, here we are.