#178 You don’t have to master this today

ByLukas
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Performance gap: the frustrating gap between the way you know something should be done in an ideal world and the way you currently do it.

I know I should write daily blog posts in advance so I have a buffer in case something comes up and I don’t get to write. Yet here I am, writing this daily insight hours before the publication date.

I know what the perfect downward-facing dog pose in yoga looks like. Yet when I perform it myself, I am far off from that ideal pose.

I know all the ingredients that make up a solid, convincing speech. Yet when I write one myself, I am only able to incorporate a few of those ingredients.

Learning, then, is closing the gap between your intellectual understanding of an ideal product, action, or skill, and your current rendition of it.

Don’t be so hard on yourself for your current performance.

You can’t expect to turn intellectual understanding into mastery and internalized knowledge right away.

You don’t have to master this today.

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#115 The path to higher self-esteem

ByLukas

Whenever someone commits to doing something and doesn’t follow through, I start distrusting them.

Whenever I commit to doing something and don’t follow through, I start distrusting myself.

The person who most often lets you down might well be you.

If you don’t accept this behavior from others, why would you accept it from yourself?

The path to higher self-esteem is paved with kept promises to yourself.

#157 Trust I must

ByLukas

When the going gets tough
When I bite the dust
Trust I must

Trust I must
That the purpose I feel inside
The calling from which I can no longer hide
Is a reliable guide

Trust I must
That the vision I hold dear
Is enough to conquer my fear
and persevere

Trust I must
That the words I say
The actions I take every day
Won’t lead me astray

Trust I must
That I am not alone
And that this calling
Will bring me home

Trust I must
Every day
That this is the path
This is my way

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#122 You don’t have to. But you could.

ByLukas

You don’t have to become a writer. But you could. Even if you don’t believe it yet.

And if knowing that you could makes you restless…

If the fact that it’s possible makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up…

If a persistent “What if” keeps echoing through your mind…

Then maybe you should become a writer.

Similarly, you don’t have to be passionate about anything. But you could.

And if you could… what would you be passionate about?

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#180 Progressive Insight

ByLukas

Performance gap: the frustrating gap between how you know something should be done in an ideal world and how you currently do it. 

One implication of the performance gap: you don’t have to master this skill today.

Another implication, maybe even more important: your idea of how something “should be done” is probably wrong anyway.

Because as you practice and gain mastery, you’ll also gain progressive insight: a more nuanced intellectual understanding of the skill you’re practicing.

What I thought was a “good” yoga session six months ago, I now see as a session full of misalignment and cramped muscles.

What I thought of as a solid piece of writing six months ago, I now see as an argument full of holes and points of improvement.

Sometimes, progressive insight is just about more nuances.

Sometimes, progressive insight shows that your initial intellectual understanding completely missed the mark.

There’s only one way to find out: practice: Sculpt away, day by day. 

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#107 Making the same decisions over and over again

ByLukas

First I decide to write every day.

That one decision liberates me of the burden of a daily decision: should I write or not?

After all, the decision has already been made, and now is not the time to negotiate.

True freedom is freedom from the burden of making the same decisions over and over again.

Because a decision turns into a constraint.

A constraint turns into the freedom to do what matters.

And when you do what matters, you become who you want to be.

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#61 Talent vs discipline

ByLukas

In all his life Picasso produced about 147,800 pieces, consisting of: 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 300 sculptures and ceramics and 34,000 illustrations – an impressive 78-year career.

https://www.pablopicasso.org/picasso-facts.jsp

13,500 paintings; that’s almost 37 years of producing a painting, every single day.

How good would you be if you had painted daily for 37 years?

Maybe still not as good as Picasso. Or maybe better. Hard to tell, because while many people might be born with talent, few people have the discipline to combine it with that level of discipline.

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