This is my modus operandi:
- Have an idea
- Sit down to work
- Work on something different
- Let the idea die
When I decided to make developer training videos,
I sat down and built a multi-tenant app for selling video subscriptions in a hawt-shit web framework I didn't know.
I didn't make a video.
I've missed out on a lot of opportunities because of that.
But I learned something invaluable about work.
Creation is a battle with ego.
Ego hates the indignity of work.
It hates simple things.
And when forced to work, ego redirects effort toward bigger, brighter, bolder goals.
This is why your blog looks like a dream but has no posts.
It's why your manager adds "just one more thing" before presenting your work to the executive team.
And it's why you won't contribute a dime to your 401k before identifying the perfect funds.
Ego refuses to look foolish.
So it counters your little idea with a noble obstacle.
Resist.
Keep your head down.
Do the thing.
Feel the shame of it.
Embrace the smallness.
Don't let ego derail you.
Originally posted to my newsletter
Top comments (10)
Less focus on the outcome and more focus on the process of getting there.
That's where the fun is after all. For us creators, the end result matters way less than the time spent getting there, and the insights picked up on the way. Usually, the more fun we're having using our knowledge, and steering the development according to our instincts, the better the product turns out to be.
Doing small things, well.
You talk straight to my ego
This gave me some 'The War of Art' vibes, I like it!
Resistance!
Thank you!
LOVE The War of Art. Pretty much everything I write is just an attempting at personalizing the timeless wisdom of that book 😂
Have you read Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy?
Not as relentlessly impacting as The War of Art but several chapters impacted me profoundly.
my pleasure. i hope that it proves helpful the next time you start making something 😅
Wow, that was deep, and pretty much summed up my reality right now.
thanks for reading! you're in good company. everyone i know, no matter how productive, fights this.
i took a trip recently and made these amazingly lists of things i was going to accomplish when i got home. i've done almost none of them. i've started 100 times but the work is always long and humiliating.
thanks for sharing that and being vulnerable, it helps me in my journey.
Wow. Goes to my list of quotes/stmnts to refer again list. Thanks Michael 🙂
🥰 i'm glad it was meaningful. thanks for the encouragement!