Why do so many people work so hard in life but still get nowhere? Our instinct is to think that more hours mean more productivity and progress. Sometimes we apply the same rule to decisions and think that the longer we think about a decision, better the decision is going to be. There is a place for occasional grinding in life, including in decision making. But the reality is that mindlessly putting in hours, even if it temporarily increases output or gives the illusion of safety, kills big picture thinking – the kind of thinking that is essential to get the most out of life.
Imagine a tire stuck in mud where the driver keeps pressing on the accelerator. This is commonly known as “spinning the wheels”. This action can dig the tires deeper into the mud, exacerbating the situation and making it more difficult to free the vehicle. That is what working hard can do to us if we lose sight of the big picture. If your life does not allow you time for creativity and big picture thinking, you are probably spinning the wheels. You may be working very hard, or thinking very hard over a decision, but you aren’t going anywhere.
Here are a few tips that may help avoid the rut of spinning wheels.
Ruthless focus
Pick the right things to spend your time on. Say no to most things. And when you occasionally say yes, give it all your focus. Prioritization is easy to overlook – shiny objects are everywhere.
How do you know if something is right for you and if you should spend your precious time on it?
First, that requires a clear understanding of your life goals and what truly matters to you. Only you know it. One way to do this is to write down what your life should look like in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. You can not prioritize if you do not know what you are optimizing your life for. Review and revise your 1, 3, 5 years plan once a year. This exercise alone can quickly transform a rudderless life into a purposeful life.
Second, do not let someone else or social pressure pick your “right thing”. It must be your own. A question that can help is – Is it something you would enjoy doing just for it’s own sake even if you got nothing in return – no money, no status, no fame?
Third, sometimes you may start out thinking it’s the right thing for you but soon realize it’s not. When that realization hits, make decisions fast and move on. Jeff Bezos, in a letter to shareholders, once compared decisions to one-way and two-way doors. When you cross a one-way door, you can’t come back. It’s irreversible. However, with a two-way door, you can walk through, look around, and return to where you started if you don’t like what you see.
Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible – they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.
Bias towards most important next step (MINS)
Worthwhile goals require many steps along the way. Starting a new business, doubling your salary, moving to a new city and new job – each of these goals are several steps stacked together. When we start thinking of all the different steps that must be done and the long road ahead, it can get overwhelming and we quickly fall into analysis paralysis trap and status quo starts looking great.
To break out of this trap, think what is your most important next step (MINS) that you can you do right NOW. Shut down the noise and take that step immediately. Have an extreme bias towards taking action. Make that call, write that idea down, send that email, build that first prototype, get that bug fixed in the code, go for a run to clear your mind. Stop overthinking. Do the most impactful step that can be done RIGHT NOW.
When highly charged emotions are involved, acting immediately is often a sign of recklessness. But for everything else, acting fast is often the best option. Great lives are built on the back of MINS done consistently over long periods of time.
Consistency over intensity
In the short term, intensity wins. In the long term, consistency wins. Life is a long-term game.
Anything worthwhile takes time and effort. Effort alone does not guarantee results over a short period but over a long period, compounding starts to work it’s magic. Things done consistently over long periods have the largest impact in our lives. Cultivate long term habits that support what you want out of life. For example, if you desperately want to be a standup comedian, write jokes every day, even if it’s for a few minutes. Practice those jokes in front of family and friends every week, even if some of those fall flat. The path of consistency beats the path of intensity 99 out of 100 times.
Understand Jealousy And Comparison
The world is filled with unhappy millionaires who hate their lives because they compare their riches with billionaires and feel inadequate. They are spinning their wheels too, just at a different level. There is always someone better than you when you compare just one aspect of your life to theirs. But as a whole, chances are you don’t want to be anybody else. Naval Ravikant explains this beautifully.
I realized with all these people I was jealous of, I couldn’t just choose little aspects of their life. I couldn’t say I want his body, I want her money, I want his personality. You have to be that person. Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you’re not
willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100 percent swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous. Once I came to that realization, jealousy faded away because I don’t want to be anybody else. I’m perfectly happy being me.
The only person you can truly compare yourself 100 percent as a whole is you of yesterday. Be better than you of yesterday.
Find your tribe
Even after you prioritize what’s important and take the most important next steps consistently, there are going to be days when you will be down and out. You will want to quit. To get over such days, you will need a tribe. A tribe is a group of people, sometimes even just one person, that you rely on to keep you from falling off the cliff. The tribe is a group of people who have either done what you are trying to do or they are themselves on the same journey as you. They understand you, they ask the hard questions and they show you the mirror, but always with your best interest in mind. The tribe helps you stay in the game.
Mindsets are contagious. If you are surrounded by people who are all spinning wheels, it’s likely you will default to spinning wheels sooner or later. So find your tribe by putting yourself in situations where you can meet the type of people who are going where you want to go or are already there.
