Crazy does: Consistency, Decisions & Execution

more specifically: ideas can easily sound good and are easy to come by. execution is hardly straightforward and hard to come by.

maybe your reaction is 'duh' - but when you were a kid, didn't you think you were always just 'that one great idea' away from making / doing something magnificent?

maybe that's because when we were younger we didn't have the information overload, decision paralysis, and extra responsibilities to distract us from executing on our amazing ideas that we do when we get older.

whatever the source of struggle may be, the struggle is for certain; execution is fucking hard.

it's a crazy counterintuitive cycle when also accepting the truth that you already know everything you need to do the thing.

sometimes it is a matter of whether you need to do it or if you merely just want to do it. if the pain of not doing the thing is not painful enough, why would you (or your ~~billions~~ thousands of ancestors who have endured because they optimized for comfort) ever do the thing? (hint: you probably won't) but that's for you to answer.

if you want to get in shape, you know what to do (eat right, move right)¹. if you want to start a business, you know what to do (and if you don't, you know how to figure out what to do; therefore, you know).

it's also important to note the difference between what you need and what you want. what you need tends to be much simpler and retrospectively obvious compared to what you might convince yourself that you need. it's easy to think you need to have X thing/experience/opportunity/ability when struggling to execute your idea, but it's likely a mind trick to deviate from what's hard - a type of excuse or just an innocently misguided execution path.

remember too: people have likely done a lot more with a lot less than you have access to right now, and they are all people who are no 'smarter'² than me or you. if you don't find this truth motivating, you're going to lose.

also don't let yourself fall victim to hindsight bias or outcome bias. the decision wasn't easy to make or else you would've made it. the right choice wasn't obviously right or else you would've chosen it.

so in most cases, what you actually need is to just actually do. and thats the hardest damn thing.

it's hard because starting is hard. the road of execution could feel like hot, sticky lava or it could feel like a carbon fiber super shoe; you'll never know until you take that first step. in addition to the scary unknown/uncertainty, there's also that friction to change your current ways of doing. we are creatures of habit (and comfort) and doing something new requires a different type of energy - activation energy (an endothermic reaction visualizes this idea nicely). (note: if you're casually, generally optimistic about most things, as I tend to be, starting could be relatively easier than other parts of the journey. here's good listen #1 and good listen #2 to overcome some common issues like the middle slump)

it's hard because patience is hard. lack of instant rewards is unsatisfying and undesirable to the highest degree when infinite, instant rewards can fit in your pocket.

it's hard because consistency is hard. consistent effort and actions compound. we know what compounding is, but our lazy minds default to linear thinking and make it near-impossible for an untrained mind to grasp the exponential growth of results that hard things follow. failure is the silence you enduringly hear for years.

it's hard because long term thinking is hard. we perceive the life we'll live today as a result of the decisions we make today, but it's really the decisions we made in the past, and consistently made, to bring us to the life we live today. with so many decisions to make on any given day, its hard to make them with consideration for your future self.

it's hard because you need to make a decision. similar to starting, decisions are launchpads disguised as roadblocks. they are easy to hide behind, and for detail-orientated-"context matters"-"it depends"-"i want to consider all the alternatives"-typa people, very hard to make. we also tend to make the walls of decision big, which makes hiding even easier. (having more options is better than less if you want to be happier with your choice (alternatives are great for making informed, accurate, and more beneficial decisions), but it's crucial to remember (according to a study i no longer have the link to) that once you make that decision, you fuckin make it. don't look back or ask what could've been. carry-on. there will be more to make.)

it's hard because you only get confidence in doing, by doing. action breeds confidence. and until you start taking action, you don't have confidence in it. no one ever became confident at something by wishful thinking, but because of all the reasons why doing is hard, we tend to do just that. (see ³ tangental thought)

it's hard because, by definition of execution, you need to finish. and finishing means accepting that it's not perfect. because to your eye, it will likely never be perfect. theoretically you can spend all the time you have "working" on anything and everything. so to finish is also accepting that life isn't infinite and life isn't perfect. but there's beauty and value in that, just as there is to you finishing what you started.

now i personally do none of these things well. i'm chronically bad at being consistent (consistently inconsistent some may say). i've lacked patience and am too near-sighted. i fall victim to envisioning my life in 3 months or 3 weeks, when better decisions span longer time horizons (source: my portfolio last 2 years vs my portfolio when options trading). i become paralyzed in the face of endless alternatives. and even when i set deadlines, i overcomplicate it and try to do too much (try to be too perfect). but lately, i've tried telling myself a different story:

i am consistent. i pick action. i make decisions. and i execute. i do.

by defaulting to action, instead of analyzing, you learn more and do more. you're increasing your surface area of luck. you're more likely to choose the thing that interests you most - the most important thing - and therefore more likely to uncover new stepping stones and find what you really enjoy doing. you think systemically so you can continue to do. by identifying the different components, breaking them down into workable chunks, you're making progress possible. everything is a system that can be broken down into pieces to build up into the bigger picture. you think big, but ship small. the eye is on the big picture, but you do the smallest thing that will get you there. you set deadlines and make it public to avoid hiding. you ask yourself why are you doing, hiding? you know you have everything you need, so you continue to make decisions. fast, prompt responses are a sign of competence and intelligence. by delivering more, you get more feedback. you learn more. become more confidence. more confidence allows for more patience; short-term patience is long term success. consistency wins. action wins. in sport or in life, you're less likely to get hurt in a crash if you move fast without hesitation. crazy does. so crazy wins.

but because you're crazy, tomorrow is a different day.

other thought to think about:

• Deadlines are important because they prevent you from trying to make it perfect; in today's world where inauthenticity is rampant, predictable, and soon to be easily replaceable by AI, being different, authentic, and genuine is one of the best / most advantageous things you can do.
• Cognitive coherence is key: working on something that you truly believe is the most important thing is easy (interests you, learning something new, related to work, and some extracurricular thing) (there’s personal and situational factors)
• if it was easy, everyone would do it. truly.