The Practice Defines your Path
Hey friends, happy Sunday!
This week I published a video on Productivity Traps: Why you never get anything done. These videos are really fun to make and I love the process of learning videography + editing - It's incredible how much knowledge is available for free on Youtube.
I've been thinking a lot about content creation over the last few weeks and I'm so glad I took the leap. There's still plenty more to come but for now, it's time to practice.
So, let's get into the filter.
The Practice Defines your Path
As I sat enjoying a Youtube tutorial on how to colour grade videos I thought back to when I first started following this unconventional path of trying to make things on the internet.
Back then I knew I wanted to build an internet business but my focus was off. Instead of finding what I enjoyed doing and building a business around that, I focused on what other people were doing, trying to emulate their success.
As you can guess this didn’t end well. I focused on trying to make money and gain traffic instead of serving other people, building something they want, and focusing on doing the things I actually enjoy.
Every single one of those early blogs/side-businesses had the same trajectory. I’d launch, gain some traction, have mild success, build a few skills, get bored and move onto the next one.
Following what other successful people were doing seemed to be the fastest route to success. But emulating others is fundamentally flawed because you miss the most important component.
You need to actually enjoy the work before you can make a real impact. Anything worth doing takes time.
This Framework from Derek Sivers helped me to identify where I’d been going wrong.
Derek talks about the concept of being happy, smart, and useful
- What makes you happy
- What’s smart — meaning long-term good for you
- What’s useful to others
Finding the sweet spot of all three is how you work on things that are self-fulfilling. The kind of things that return compounding interest over time.
Instead of focusing on what others can do for you [and how you can make money], flip the switch. How can I be useful to others, doing something that makes me happy, that’s also a smart long term move?
When you focus on trying to be happy, smart, and useful you’re able to commit to the practice instead of focusing on the outcomes.
“If you are using outcomes that are out of your control as fuel for your work, it’s inevitable that you will burn out. Because it’s not fuel you can replenish, and it’s not fuel that burns without residue.” - Seth Godin
The hardest part is finding your practice. What are the things you can do that make you happy, are useful to others, and are smart in the long run?
In my experience trial and error is the best way to find these for yourself. Just don’t overthink it. You don’t need to be crazy passionate about something, just find what makes you happy, is useful to others, and smart long term.
Once you find those things focus on them intently. Blocking out all other possibilities for a period of time.
Optionality seems like a great thing in the moment but keeping your options open closes off the door to compounding returns because you never commit to anything.
By limiting your options you can commit to your practice. Instead of focusing short term, you can build towards long-term success over the next 2-5 years.
When you start to think long-term it becomes easier to follow your own path. You don’t get caught up in what other people are doing because you’re focusing on your own mission.
Your attention is no longer dragged from place to place.
You just focus on the practice, day in, day out. That’s when the path becomes clear.
“ We continue to focus on the process, not solely on the outcomes. If the process is right, the outcome will inevitably follow.” - Seth Godin
Here are this week's finds:
(Article)
People often talk about building in public but they do it in a way that leads to them just talking and never executing.
This post offers a great way to benefit from working in public without the downsides.
"Here’s how I practice in public:
I (privately [important]) plan out the daily processes and habits I will focus on.
I execute; integrating new habits and routines in small batches. I document things that I have done, and nod towards where it’s headed.
For added accountability, I document things I am doing live (or in a way that’s always public, like my open stats page).
Here’s what I don’t do:
Talk about what I am “going to do”.
Talk about goals or end results (those are out of my control).
Make it seem like I am an expert and that the way I am doing things is the “right way”.
Build habits privately, execute publicly.
💸 How a subreddit took down a multi-billion dollar hedge fund
(Thread)
Reddit is one of the most interesting places on the internet. As most marketers know when you want an answer to a question reddit is usually better than google [because of shallow content marketing] but who knew a subreddit could bring down a multi-billion dollar hedge fund 😂.
Some of the people involved in this made millions on the GameStop stock. This story is absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend checking it out.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of the situation.
🎯 Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
(Book)
This is one of these books that you'll either love or hate. For me it completely re-shaped my thinking in a lot of areas.
Here's an excerpt from the book that explains the concept of antifragility:
“Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile.
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”
This concept looks great [if you miss out the huge ergonomic design flaws]
But it's interesting to see how car prototypes like this are almost always about the hype for the company, never about making something innovative.
Concept cars often stay as exactly that. They are made to impress but usually fundamentally flawed, I really hope in the future we see more of this type of thing put into action.
End Notes
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I'd love it if you share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up.
Have a great Sunday,
- Stephen