Are you one drop of water away from your ultimate self?
In my journal, I've been wrestling with a fundamental question: What pace is required to break through barriers and become who I need to be? How can I compose my time inputs and apply leverage to compress time into short, intense bouts of work?
Programming my mind to think deeply about maintaining a steady but intense pace has become my core engineering problem. There are a thousand "right" ways to program yourself to achieve what you've set out to do. But I've found the hardest challenge is creating the right sense of inputs to apply to any given task.
I want to be a person with energy to make action, love to attract other wonderful humans, and maintain a curious, joyful spirit. Yet the challenge lies in balancing this with my desire to "go dark" and work intensely. This tension led me to engineer a plan focused on three core elements: energy, love, and joyful curiosity.
Here are the three principles I use to evolve:
I. Long-term vs Short-term
Countless times, I've found myself jumping into new ideas out of blind curiosity. But I saw stagnating progress in this approach. Now, I restrict myself to what is my true documented goal. While great opportunities won't hurt when they arrive, I never forget why I wake up. What is it I constantly think about? That's what I focus on with increased structure and attention.
II. Learning and Leveraging Biology
Learning is simultaneously one of the most painful and amazing activities. I make it a principle to continually create time for learning with intensity. Learning while in a high attention state is leverage. Attention provides the required focus to "make stuff stick." I follow Huberman's protocols for learning, recognizing that leveraging biology for study and creation is one of the highest leverage activities available.
III. Understanding the Vacuum
During sprint periods, I observe an energy vacuum – a deficit that hits once pushed to a limit. I've found it challenging to see or discover in advance where this line in the sand lies. But once crossed, mental and physical energy becomes depleted for a day or two. I'm working to discover this golden limit so I can know exactly where that line exists.
I think about this line in two ways: push and pull. Pull occurs when I have clarity on current states of affairs. With both physical and mental vigor, I push but leave enough time in the day to restore equilibrium mentally and physically for the next day. Push happens when I recognize a current of opportunity and energy. I visualize it like an almost full glass of water – the goal is to spill over and reach the next level, but this time I consciously exchange restoration time to leverage the extra hours.
These three models constantly help me maintain cadence and stack the bricks of life's foundation. There's nothing more awesome than treating life like a game while not taking yourself (the player) too seriously.
The key is to play well.
