Question from a reader. Important one. Perhaps you'll relate —
Work aside I find myself having a hard time leaving college life and college friends. My work ethic isn't as high as I expected it to be. I find myself just wanting to meet new people and hangout with friends.
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What about you? Did you find yourself with a similar mindset when you were 23? Oh, in one of your blog posts you mentioned going into gathering resources mode. What does that look like?
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Oh one more one more thing, you're so prepared for everything and for me planning and preparedness is probably my biggest weakness. I know I should be more prepared, but if its not a built in habit I will forget to do it. The same goes for so many principles, lessons learned, its not that I don't want to implement it, its that the opportunity to implement it isn't there when I learn the lesson, but when the opportunity arises I forget to.
> What about you? Did you find yourself with a similar mindset when you were 23?
Yes.
This is not a natural skill for anyone, and has to be learned if desired.
> Oh, in one of your blog posts you mentioned going into gathering resources mode. What does that look like?
Explicitly defining things you want — more high caliber people in your life, explicit skills, a certain amount of cash stored up, explicit credentials or awards, etc. Then focusing on getting those as a core animating function for a short time, with a review scheduled periodically to re-check if it's working and if you want to move on.
> Oh one more one more thing, you're so prepared for everything and for me planning and preparedness is probably my biggest weakness.
I got good at it because I had to.
I was naturally scattered and all over the place.
I used to swing on a 1-10 scale everything from -2 to 12 (yes, off the scale). Over time, I looked to set my baseline so I don't self destruct (bringing the baseline from -2 up to, say, 1 out of 10), and then to get it so I at least move the ball forwards a little on bad days (getting it to 3 or 4), and then looking to hit high on the scale (8+) more often, and occasionally seeing if it's possible to still hit 12 out of 10 without being in a dionysian frenzy.
It's an ongoing iterative process. But going from "self destruct on a bad day" to "neutral on a bad day" to "mildly productive on a bad day" is huge. It's necessary to at least not implode on bad days if you want to move forwards. I've (mostly) learned on mildly bad days how to handle it and produce, and how to recognize and bail out of very bad days with minimal damage. The very bad days (and weeks, too, sometimes, sadly) are a common place where people do the most self-destructive stuff; if you can avoid that damage it goes a long ways to keeping one's life on track.
> I know I should be more prepared, but if its not a built in habit I will forget to do it.
Same.
> The same goes for so many principles, lessons learned, its not that I don't want to implement it, its that the opportunity to implement it isn't there when I learn the lesson, but when the opportunity arises I forget to.
Same if I don't practice. I'll practice by modeling the situation in detail in my head, and repeatedly try to pick the correct course of action, and then try to set triggers for doing it right, and then (probably) screw it up again next time, but keep at it.
It takes a while.
Learning to master operations, organization, and maximum effectiveness is probably a 10+ year process. You get there by trying and failing and trying and failing repeatedly, and have to stay at it to get there.
People don't like to hear that, but it's true. Like, everyone wants to read a single blog post or read a single book and transform into Elon Musk or Richard Branson overnight. But like, read about those guys talking about when they were young. Young Branson wasn't Branson; young Musk wasn't Musk. So, like, duh, that's not possible.
It's saddening once you realize the impossibility of instantly transforming into the most effective person on the planet, because that's what everyone wants. I'm not being facetious, it really is sad and everyone is looking for "the one thing," but in reality it's getting 5000 little things down to a very precise level, and in harmony, and having the mental models, and avoiding the fail cases and drilling them in.
Nobody likes that, but realizing it is liberating. There are two consolidations though —
First, every step on the way to being more effective, avoiding mistakes, treating yourself better, and doing worthy things — every step on that road is a worthwhile one, one you'll be glad you took.
Second, if you go all the way, you're one of the most effective people on the planet. That's a pretty big prize to be chased down, eh?
SM