You Get Better at Doing by Doing

Only Doing furthers the progress of the task. This is easy to say, hard to understand in the way that it translates as immediate action.

One of the best leadership questions after a decision to do something, is to ask when you are going to do it? And the follow up is, why not now?

Important things should be started immediately. Next best thing is to set clear slot to calendar and do it then.

In sales there is saying “time kills deals.” In leadership it could be said that procrastination kills inspiration.

What ever is the cause for the delay: procrastination, hesitation, fear – all of those reasons we can figure out if they are defences or not, and then to think if this is really a excuse or could there be a way to do it now?

Doing things now, requires preparation and courage. Preparation for the most important things in life should be one of our daily practices. We cannot always do the things we want to do right now, however when can take the present moment as a practice and preparation for the moments that come. And when they come, we should seize the moments without hesitation.

Do it right away!

See the tasks that feel difficult right now as a practice for the future success. Those who are willing to put themselves through difficult situations learn the quickest. You’ll get a lot better through challenges.

There is one exception to the rule: things that are way too difficult We do not need to try to do the impossible, but the thing that just is just out of reach, not out of sight.

A Little Bit Better

In life what we do and use, we get to keep and strengthen. What we do not use, we forget, it falls into the category of entropy.

At a time, our focus is in one thing. Through the day we can do several things in sequence. Difficulty is that, there is a limit to how many things we can switch our attention to. There is limit, we have to make choice.

This choice is called decision making or prioritizing.

How do we know what to prioritize each day? Some people rely on their own memory, others on outside memory like paper, then others do decision based on whatever they happen to feel at a moment.

For me it was a breakthrough to realize that I cannot remember my goals so clearly, so I wrote them down and put a visual place.

Even more breakthrough was for me, when I realized that the most important things have to be so simple and clear that I have no choice but to remember them. In other words, the things that you want to remember, you should remember always. And then have them somewhere written down so you can check that you are actually remembering correctly.

Writing things down has magical ability to make it more real, so anything that is important should be written down as well. Writing also makes physical changes in our brain which is a good thing: writing is essentially rewiring your brain to the thoughts you are writing.

In addition to writing and simplicity there is still one factor that makes remembering clearly your goals and priorities easier: making it fun. You can make a rap, a poem or a story, like I did.

Now that we know what we must and need to do, there is this question? What you if you would get a little bit better at the most critical tasks of the day you do?

Getting a little bit better at the most valuable and important tasks you do and maybe even you are the only one can do. What would that create? I think that would create tremendous value for the society around you.

Ignorance Everywhere

Ignorance rises every morning when we wake up.

Therefore to we must start our inner work in the morning to be mindful about this ignorance. Simplest way to become mindful about the ignorance is to take a moment to reflect what are the most important events of the day, what virtues you need there and what could go wrong.

Today I began my commute by meditating and I realized it’s good to focus on what can go wrong but also what should go right.

We can only start the journey where we are. And we do not have accurate world views. The difference between what we think we are and how the world is, can be a shock at times. Sometimes it’s not because we were wrong, it’s because something has changed and our world view hasn’’t.

Living by the truth isn’t easy, however it’s the way to live by. Ignorance cannot stand the truth.

When we shed light to our ignorance, only the true understanding remains.

As we become more mindful about our ignorance, we will gain more accurate sense of the world. Yet world is every morning different than it was when we left it as was. Something has changed.

We are all ignorant, that’s the first step to become mindful about.

Do Difficult Things Together

 

Preparing for the challenging week, I was not sure how I was going to get through it. If it’s just me I knew I was not going to make it, alone with all the work and pressure. Although I still have to do most of the work, the way I ended up organizing the work turned out to be crucial: together with others.

Doing difficult things together has tremendous impact. Even the most challenging and difficult things become the things of learning.

Even stretch goals become possible when done together.

I’ve noticed that there is a point in where direct feedback becomes convenience and even expectation. It’s much faster, saves the energy of everyone than the being nice politeness.

Around people who can give such feedback and development ideas, the impossible becomes possible.

Support of course is priceless. Almost anyone can be of support, however of course the deeper the connection, the better the spirit.

When you’ve really difficult things to work on, do not try to figure out everything yourself. Find a way to do difficult things together, even if you are

The Climb

Getting a thing done is easy: do until its’ done.

It requires patience, persistence and determination and even collaboration depending on the size of the project. If we are however long enough persistent, anything can be accomplished.

Today I asked myself a question: what keeps us from persisting? This question I couldn’t answer.

However slightly more personal “what keeps me from persisting?” I could.

Answer was suffering.

I would rather not suffer, I would rather be comfortable and feel nice than to get the something done, from which is no guarantee to be completed.

While the slow climb up might be tough, at least I am moving up. Falling down might feel comfortable for a while, until I hit the rock bottom.

 “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”― Bruce Lee

In my life the both professional work and creative efforts are challenging me, sometimes I feel adversity, even suffering. I try to think of it as bliss, because adversity and challenge makes me stronger. Through adversity, we become conditioned to the difficult climb and eventually as we reach top, we forget how strong we’ve become on the way. Gravity has crushed many on the way, but only those we are willing to endure the difficult long enough persisted.

The climb is not easy, air gets thinner, slope gets icy, winds grow strong and climb gets slower.

Yet what does remain? The process: process of moving up, no matter how slow. I know as long as this process is going on, I will be climbing up.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
― Calvin Coolidge

Doing hard things

Tiring morning, can be excuse for many things. From yesterday’s Ajahn Brahn session however I remember one thought: Is the work really hard, or is thinking about it really hard?

Then my thoughts connect back to the Friday, where one of our top consultants had the opportunity to share some insights about the importance of our work and beliefs that might be hindering us there. Antti Kiukas said it well: there is no difficult field of business (in Finland).

And that’s true, it’s the same thing. It’s all in our head.

This connects the two powerful thoughts to even more powerful words by Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”

Beliefs.

Well is it really that hard? No. I.e. in my work most difficult things do not require any superpowers, they mostly require the ability to talk and that is what we learn at a very young age, like start to learn around one year of age. It’s totally not about being able to talk.

It’s the beliefs about everything and anything that makes it hard. Thinking about doing it is hard.

Doing is not hard.

Ajahn Brahn suggests the same solutions as Nike “just do it.”

I decided to apply this today I noticed that the resistance of beliefs was preventing myself from action today. I did notice, it’s not that hard. Doing one action at the time is certainly a very human feat.

Do hard things one action at a time.

Help by doing the difficult

It seems that the human tendency for the easy is like sugar for the flies. Yet most beneficial for us all is the hard work. Hard, that takes effort to complete.

There is limit to the hard work we can do each day, because it is so strenuous to our minds. We simple have limited amount of cognitive ability for each day; limited number of decision that can considered good.

Today I stumbled upon amazing article by Buster Benson about our mind and how it distorts reality. Message there is simple, biases exist to protect us from the reality that would overload us.

Conscious mind however, has the ability to bit by bit start seeing the world as it is. This is called Vipassana.

What does this mean? Do not settle for the easy, struggle for the difficult. That way we grow and we all have more.

Difficulty gives us direction in life

Great thing with the difficulty in life is that we don’t need to spend much time thinking about what should we do, because the difficulty will present itself to us.

There are both the negative and the positive the difficulty. If you feel negative, look for the positive. It is in there. Our emotional world is often as round as the real world we are inhabiting. Even if we first go the right way and we are not paying attention we may end up where we start.

Therefore it’s important to know what you are looking for and when to stop looking.

We can do this. Everything is hard, until it becomes easy, to quote Saadi’s words.