Taking one step at a time
My path in life has been anything but straight. And I think most of you can relate to that, at least to some extent. We don’t know, and we can’t know, whether we’ll be good at something or not or whether we’ll like it or not before we actually try it. We all suck at everything at first, that’s the point. We have to be really shit at something at first in order to learn, both what to do, and what not to do, in order to grow and become really great at something.
One thing that I see as a big difference from when I was at the very beginning of my career and when I started writing for real in my early 20s, is that I have a very difference type of patience and focus. Something that was distinguishing of who I was back then was that I was very driven and had little patience in things happening. In some ways that was what got things rolling for me and I was able to achieve a lot of different things. However, my focus was lacking in the sense that I could easily loose focus on what I was doing and get clogged up in what needs to get done down the road.
What I had to train myself to do was to focus on what I was doing here and now, no matter how horribly boring or insanely agonising it was at the moment. Because if I lost that focus, and started thinking about how much time was left before I would be done, if I started thinking about everything I had to do, I would quickly burn out and loose the fight inside my own mind, which ultimately lead to me failing.
To be able to deliver on a big client project that is planned over several months, to be able to get yourself through a 45min as-many-rounds-as-possible workout, you need to focus on that one step you are taking here and now. That one round in the workout, is all that matters. That one task you are working on right now, is all that matters. Having that disciplined focus, allows you to get the best result on that one task, and then be able to move on to the next.
And you can’t get there without planning. You need to plan out your project, or your workout, or whatever you do. And with experience comes the skill to plan better. But in the end, you need to take one step at a time. Like a disciplined munk being able to meditate for hours, you need to callus your mind into letting go of the impulsive thoughts you get. Realise that, while the thoughts are natural and nothing inherently wrong, you can’t let them control your focus and pull you from what you know you really want to do.
How do you develop that kind of focus and discipline? Practise. Practise the art of focus. Figure out where you are in your ability to focus. Do you struggle with sitting down and reading a single page in a book? Start there. Create a new routine and dedicate yourself to it for the next 6 months. Start by reading 1 page every day. After one month, you can increase that number to 5 pages, or 10 pages. Keep increasing the resistance as you get comfortable to the strain you are putting your mind under.
Do you struggle to sit still and think about one thing? Like planning a project? Or writing a plan for your content strategy? Start meditating. Do the same for meditation where you dedicate yourself to 6 months of strict routine of meditation. But most importantly, meet your body and mind where it is. Don’t place the bar too high for you to reach it. It’s the small steps, taken every single day, for weeks, months and years, that truly add up to that compounding effect. And before you know it, you’ll be so far ahead of yourself in a year, that you might just forget how hard it was for you to read that one page in a book.