Back in the saddle

You get knocked down but you get up again

You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.

―Andy Warhol

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Consistency is how you do things, things that take more that one hot minute to accomplish. (Or 2 minutes if you’re following the GTD task rules.) If you want to do only things that take one hot minute or thereabouts, you don’t need consistency. You just need decisive action, real quick, and boom. You’re done, move forward.

But of course almost anything we do takes more than one minute (hot or cold or really of any temperature). Washing up after dinner doesn’t take long, but it’s more than a minute. To accomplish this type of middling task (not too long, but more than one minute) you need consistency: wash one dish. Now another. Now another. Keep doing the action that the task requires until the task is fully complete.

Running 50 meters or running 5 miles is not different in any way except the amount (volume? longevity?) of consistency required. Keep putting one foot in front of the other at a pace slightly faster than a walk. Do it about 50 times and you’ve run 50 meters. Wow! Now keep doing it. Do it another 8000 times or so and you’ve run 5 miles. What’s the difference? Nothing. It’s just more of the same. Consistent repetitive action.

If you’ve proven to yourself you can do something once, any one-minute action—wash a dish, write a sentence, run a few steps, hold your tongue, speak your mind, learn a single word in a foreign language, strum a chord—then you’ve proven you can do it over and over again.

Seems like the real difference between an amateur and a professional is mostly how many times they can do the same thing over and over again.

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Delightful things!

🐄 Petting a miniature cow! (If anyone I know has a farm, I am begging you: please get a miniature cow so I can come be best friends with it.)

🐑 Giving an ultrasound to a sheep (she’s having twins!)

🚗 Demolition derby (less delightful and more just really loud by the end but 10/10 for entertainment)

💜 Saturday morning walks

🪵 Fire pit with corgi (also with delightful people but look at the sun shining on the little fluffy perfect head)

🧐 Essays by Venkatesh Rao

🥾 Hiking near water

📚 Finishing a few good books, starting a few more

🆗 Seeing some of those little actions add up.

❤️‍🔥 Perspective from Patrick:

I thought to myself that if I could go back in time from age 56, I’d let that 26 year old know not to do one single thing differently. Not to make a single different choice and take every same diversion. That in that period there will be the darkest days you’ve ever been through. They. Will. Suck! But it will all be worth every heartbreak and triumph. It will be worth every second.

💋 Today’s a day! It could the end of the world but look: it isn’t. What a miracle. Unwad your panties, put on your lipstick, and do your thing. You got this, or if you don’t, take a nap instead. (P.S. I love you! You’re doing great.)