Longer Arcs
Our haste for results may be tripping us up.
In nature, we have some simple laws like sowing and reaping. You put a seed in the ground, provide the right conditions and wait. We wait for the process to do its work, humbly acknowledging that some things are outside of our control, no matter how much we put in. But we seem to be running out of patience for stuff like this. So we’re always looking for hacks, always trying to optimise. But our bid to make things faster, does not necessarily make them better.
What if we could change our horizons a little. Imagine starting something with mind of keeping it going for 10 years as opposed to 21 days? Or maybe even 20 years? What difference would this make? How would it impact our expectations? How would it change how much effort we put in? Maybe we would handle “bad” days differently, knowing that in the grander scheme things will even out. Maybe we would be less agitated about poor outcomes or results, buoyed by the fact that there will be more opportunities.
When the horizon is longer, direction matters more than speed, consistency more than intensity. It is in this paradigm of the longer arc that things like showing up and shipping makes sense. Maybe I need the stability of long term goals, of life-time objectives. I’ve tried the 20–30 day stuff. They haven’t really done much. It’s not enough time for me to reap the benefits of compounding. I need a much larger window.
Just some random musings.
