If you’re reading this, you probably don’t do hard work
“Coding, or designing, or writing pitch decks, or making sales calls, or preparing spreadsheets, or writing blog posts, or social media marketing, or buying ads, or choosing the right color, or picking the right paper, or making a layout responsive, or investing in companies, or doing due diligence, or making decisions, or coming up with a strategy, or allocating capital, or figuring out how to spend the budget, or reading up on a subject is not hard work. That’s just work. If you can do it in an air conditioned room, with no physical threat to you or someone else, while seated, it ain’t hard work”.
“It may be challenging work. It may be creative work. It may be skilled work. It may require multiple tries to get it right. You may have to learn new things. You may be rejected a bunch. You may get hung up on. You may not know how to get from A to B. You may have to persuade. You may have to deal with people you don’t like. You may have to sell something someone doesn’t know they want. You may have to be creative. You may have to build something that hasn’t been built before. You may have to battle entrenched interests. You may have to put in a few days or weeks in a row to figure something out you’re stuck on. You may have to make tradeoffs. But that’s the work. Not achieving the outcome you wanted doesn’t make it hard, it means you have more work to do.”
I say this all the time to people who work in the tech space when they complain about how difficult their job is. Your job is challenging, and it could be frustrating. However, there are jobs out there that are actually a lot more difficult to do. Don’t forget how spoiled we are.
Stop Overthinking Small Decisions
“They know that a 70% accurate decision made quickly and based on sound principles is better than a 90% decision made after careful consideration.”
“It is not uncommon in a meeting for me to say, “There are three choices: A, B, C. My gut tells me that we ought to do B. But let’s decide as a group. I don’t care if my view isn’t selected. Let’s make a decision and move on.”
It wasn’t until I started working at Distilled that I realized I was a notorious over-thinker. Some of my coworkers can attest to this. At Distilled, part of our core values is something we like to call “ship it”. It’s essentially the quote above. Do the best job you can, but also realize you need to keep a good pace and ship things. I’m still working on this.
28 Lessons From Great Writers, Artists And Creators On Mastering Your Craft
“You know you are working with a master when they constantly ask how to improve and learn.”
Again, to relate this back to my full-time gig. I have VP’s and sometimes even the CEO asking for feedback on things like blogs, deliverables, pitch decks, or presentation slides. The quote above is 100% true and if you run into someone who thinks they have it all figured out and don’t want feedback, be cautious.
“Find Your Plus, Minus and Equal — The MMA trainer Frank Shamrock works fighters through a system called +, -, =. Everyone needs to work with someone better than them, equal to them and someone who they can teach. Who are yours?”
Great reminder to check the people you surround yourself with (both in personal and professional life).
How To Live A Full Life (And Leave Nothing On The Table) By 30
“I am saying that relationships are great because you make them great, not because you search until you magically find one that’s already perfect.”
Really been liking some of Ryan’s writing as of late. This post in particular (albeit with a click-baity title) had some great gems. I liked this quote in particular because of how true it is, and how often I see people holding off on dating or trying new things because they want to wait for someone/something “perfect”. That’s an illusion. Nobody is perfect. The key is to find someone who is willing to work with you, not against you.
How To Be More Productive by Working Less
“Most of us, for most of our lives, conceptualize work as a linear function. What I mean by “linear” is that the amount of productive output you create is directly proportional to a number of hours you input.”
“We all kind of go through life assuming this is the way things work (for the most part). This is mostly because school work functions pretty linearly. They give you a bunch of stuff to memorize, and if you spend two hours memorizing it, you’ll remember about twice as much as if you had spent one hour.”
Interesting that the author linked how we were taught in school with how we perceive productivity today. Sometimes I find myself thinking the same way. If I spend 4 hours on something, it’s better than 1, right? Well, not if you accomplished just as much in 1 hour it isn’t!
“See, solving problems is like food for your mind. It makes your mind happy. It makes it feel important and worthy and capable—all things directly linked to happiness. But solving problems is to your mind as food is to your stomach. It needs a variety of stimulation and too much of one kind will cause it to get sick and tired. But what’s amazing is that this leisure time—this ability to distract one’s brain away from problem-solving and work, actually makes your brain far more effective upon returning to work. I know, I know—it’s crazy, but weekends and vacation really do exist for a reason.”
This article is packed with great advice on balancing work and rest. This is also something I need to get better at.
Life Is a Video Game—Here Are the Cheat Codes
There are five levels in life:
Level 1 – Find food; find a bed to sleep in at night
Level 2 – Know you’re not going to die
Level 3 – Find your people
Level 4 – Do something that’s important and valuable to both yourself and others
Level 5 – Create a legacy
“Life is designed to continually throw difficult and unexpected problems at you. Life is a never-ending stream of problems that must be confronted, surmounted and/or solved. If at any point, Life runs out of problems to give us, then as players, we will unconsciously invent problems for ourselves. Problems are what keep us occupied and give our lives meaning and are, therefore, necessary to conquer Levels 4 and 5 (give value and leave a legacy).”
Really enjoyed this article about how to master life in 5 levels. There’s obviously more to it than this, but it was a good read.