☕ saturday mornings #33
hard choices, achieving more with less & questioning reality
Good morning all,
Happy Saturday. I hope you’re having a lovely start to your weekend.
Below is your edition of “saturday mornings”, a weekly recap of what I’ve been testing, learning, and exploring over the past few days.
Thanks for being here.
Total read time (bolded sections) = 1 minute
Total read time (all) = 4 minutes
✍️Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”
— Jerzy Gregorek
💡Idea I’m exploring:
Effortless Action
How can you achieve more by doing less?
At first, this question seems paradoxical. And impossible.
But before you think I’m an idiot (perhaps it’s too late) let me explain with a quick story.
Derek Sivers, a highly successful entrepreneur and author, committed to a new exercise plan. Each day, Derek would head out on his bike along the same oceanside path in Santa Monica, put his head down and push himself hard, red-faced huffing and puffing, until he reached the end of the path.
After a few weeks, Derek noticed that he always finished his workout at the same time. 43 minutes.
Eventually, he became hesitant to go on bike rides. They became too much pain and hard work.
So one day, instead of quitting entirely, Derek decided to bike down the same trail but instead of pushing himself hard, he aimed to go at half his normal pace and enjoy the ride. Take in the sights and sounds. No huffing and puffing.
When he reached the end of the trail, after his leisurely bike ride, Derek checked the time and couldn’t believe his eyes. 45 minutes.
All of his red-faced huffing and puffing was only for an extra 2 minutes. It was basically for nothing. He received nearly identical results with half the effort while enjoying the ride instead of wanting to give up or pass out (or both).
That day Derek learned one of the most valuable lessons of his life. It isn’t a race. You can get 95% of the results without going through life tired and killing yourself. Success and great results do not have to come with a side of pain or misery.
We often take pain or stress as a positive sign that we’re moving forward.
However, when it feels like we’re trying too hard, it’s not a cue to double your efforts and keep pushing. The action that causes the pain is unlikely to relieve it.
The feeling of stress or pain can be used as a signal to step back and evaluate your approach.
The secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.
Feeling as though you are trying too hard indicates that your priorities, technique, focus, or mindfulness is off. Take it as a cue to reset, not to double down.
― Tim Ferriss, 4 Hour Workweek
The implicit assumption we make is that more time and effort will create better results. It seems like a given. More time studying means better grades, more time at the office means a quicker promotion, more time exercising means you’ll be in better shape.
Yet, is this assumption always true? Does a task or activity have to be hard or painful to be successful?
We’re conditioned to believe that we must also overdo if we are to overachieve. As a result, we make things harder for ourselves than they need to be.
When we feel overwhelmed, it may not be because the situation is inherently overwhelming. It may be because we are over-complicating something in our own heads.
That’s why “What would this look like if it were easy?” is a paradigm-shifting question. It challenges the assumption we make that anything valuable and worth doing has to be hard.
You force yourself to struggle, simply based on the belief that you can’t achieve the results without the struggle. Most of the rules we follow, we create ourselves.
Over the long-run, consistency in your work matters most, not the absolute level of effort in one day or the next. Make small, incremental improvements each day. Get 1% better. Let compounding take the wheel.
It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you don’t stop.
― Confucius
Credit: Atomic Habits, James Clear
Yet, the feeling of trying too hard is often inversely related to consistency.
Life doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple recipe can work. Focus on the 20% of your actions that drive 80% of the results, be consistent over time, take uncomfortable actions, and have uncomfortable conversations that others avoid. View pain as a cue to step back and evaluate, not to charge headfirst.
Through adopting this mindset, one used by high performers around the world, you take the pressure off yourself to hit home runs every day. Besides, you can’t hit home runs if you’re gripping the bat too tight.
Trying too hard often makes it harder to get the results you want.
Success shouldn’t come at the cost of enjoyment and fun … and it doesn’t have to.
There’s a simple idea I often forget when I’m focused on achievement or accolades.
Life is meant to be enjoyed.
❓Question for reflection:
What, at this moment, is lacking? Could it be that everything is fine and complete as it is?
Whenever I feel a vague sense of unease, but can’t put my finger on it, this question has been a game-changer.
It prompts you to be precise about why you’re feeling something is wrong.
I’ve found this search for an answer can be an answer in itself. Often I realize that there’s nothing wrong, or it’s a small or trivial thing that I’ve blown out of proportion. By pulling it to the forefront of my mind, I can handle it and clear it off my mental hard drive. Easy peasy.
“The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fear; its course lies wholly towards the future.
For we are plunged into blind desires which will harm us, but certainly never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago.
Continually remind yourself how many ambitions you have attained. When you see many ahead of you, think of how many are behind!”
― Seneca
The second part helps with gratitude. It challenges our continual pursuit of more.
Typically I feel ridiculous for moaning and complaining when I’m quite lucky.
A similar question I like to swap in: “What about me seems to have such a problem with reality?”
Type-A personalities have goal-pursuit as default hardwiring. This is excellent for producing achievement, but also anxiety, as you’re constantly future-focused.
I’ve personally decided that achievement is no more than a passing grade in life… For anything more, and certainly for anything approaching happiness, you have to want what you already have.
― Tim Ferriss
🎨Picture I loved:
Rethinking Quitting
If you enjoyed this edition, I’d love if you could share it with a friend.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “saturday mornings”.
As always, if you have any feedback or thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email or shoot me a message on Twitter @tommy_dixon_
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Thomas