I’m always interested in finding blind spots or misconceptions in common knowledge. Most people don’t seem to really get what they want out of life, and while this is partly fueled by society pushing wants on people, it’s also due to blind spots. Sometimes big problems go unsolved not because we’re incapable of solving them, but because we have no idea they exist.
One I’ve been thinking about recently is that of preparation vs. execution. Every day I have to write a blog post, something I’ve been doing for half a year now. This sometimes feels like an enormous task, but never takes more than half an hour. Usually it’s more like twenty minutes.
The reason it feels so difficult, I realized, is because the preparation is the hard part. Writing is easy and doesn’t take all that long. The hard part is coming up with a topic every single day. That I’ve mashed my fingers on a keyboard every day doesn’t seem so difficult, but coming up with 180 different things to write about in a row? That’s another story entirely.
The difficulty in a lot of other endeavors is also in the prep. Cooking is mostly tedious because you have to prepare. Even programming is the same way. Once you know what problem you’re going to solve, and roughly how to solve it, the actual coding is quite easy.
Executing feels glorious, while preparing feels like drudgery. I think that’s why we don’t put enough attention on it. People might be proud to be good writers, but not to be good idea-generators. Braising meat to perfection is something to be proud of, while chopping vegetables efficiently is a chore.
When there’s a disconnect like this, there’s an opportunity. I’m working on becoming the best preparer I can possibly become. Whenever something interesting happens to me, I try to think of how it could be formed into a blog post. When I don’t know what to do next on Sett, I try to see it as an opportunity to slow down and map my next moves.
If you aren’t moving as swiftly towards your goals as you’d like to be, ask yourself how your preparation is. Could you prepare better? What if you became the best at preparing in that area? What would it do for your overall results?
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Photo is a balloon inflating at the Flying Circus airshow in Virginia. I got to fly in the balloon and help crew it.
Heading to Kansas City, Missouri this weekend to watch the Invicta FC 8 event. I’m getting really into MMA!
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