I’ve had athletes fight me on this one. And the thing is, I think at a certain level, they may be right. If teen girl, regional soccer is the pinnacle of your aspiration, you may be able to “lock in” for games and simply skate through practice. But I’ve been listening to “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” and the author references a similar concept. What do you think top pro athletes are thinking about while performing? He argues “nothing.” That they are in flow state. That they are in the moment. Relying on their training and their reactions to the events happening around them at the moment. It’s true enough for me in my soccer games and I’m pretty far from pro! All of which isto reiterate the concept that everything we do ends up being in preparation for the next thing we do. You need to hold yourself accountable for the little things in the now if you expect to be able to do great things later.
Yeah, this is a long one, but I really really like this from Derek Muller (Veritasium channel on YouTube). One of the things that really stuck with me from this video is the concept that “the effort is the algorithm”. I think it’s the same thing that Eisenhower was capturing in this quote. You’re not going to perfectly predict all of the context in which your future activity (or product) will exist in. (It’s part of why the world largely moved away from waterfall software development.) But, by having made the plan, you’ll have thought through the complexities, the tradeoffs, the inflection points that will require attention. And having done that work, you’ll be better prepared to meet the reality. Even with your imperfect predictions.
