There are 100 days left in 2022.
What’s one thing you can accomplish between now and the end of the year that will make your year?
Maybe it’s something you’ve wanted to do for a long time, but somehow you never found the time? Or something new that you’re excited to start? Maybe this is the time to do something that will change everything…
You already know the answer. Now’s the time to commit and make it happen.
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This week’s Quality Question is inspired by Nat Eliason’s recent essay exploring his relationship with writing, work, and money. The punchline?
Be careful what you do to pay the bills. You might just succeed at it.
I’ve tried to seriously pursue writing a few times.
Every time, I’ve given up. Not in an explicit “I SURRENDER” moment of defeat, but through a subtle sliding away.
The kind of sliding where you wake up a year later and wonder “when did I make this decision?” Maybe you’ve experienced that, too. That moment when you realize the current of life carried you somewhere you never fully chose to go.
It took a while for me to realize that all of this other work was originally just to support being able to write. I started making courses to support writing. I started the agency to be able to write. I went into crypto because I was scared of not making enough money writing.
Ask yourself:
What are you doing now just so you can do what you really want to some day? What if you just do the thing you really want to do now?
In The Way of the Superior Man, David Deida writes:
Each purpose, each mission, is meant to be fully lived to the point where it becomes empty, boring, and useless. Then it should be discarded. This is a sign of growth, but you may mistake it for a sign of failure.
Ask yourself:
What mission can you graduate from and discard now?
Last week we encouraged you to take one step in pursuit of your dream.
Often what holds us back from pursuing and achieving our highest goals is not a lack of opportunity or ability, but a lack of time and focus.
We waste our precious time, energy, and focus doing things that don’t bring us joy or move us closer to our goals.
What do you need to stop doing?
Is there something that sucks up your valuable time and energy that you can cut out? Maybe something like scrolling through TikTok or the news…
Perhaps there’s something that feels productive but isn’t serving your highest purpose? Maybe something like checking your email or Slack every five minutes, instead of focusing on more important, deep work?
Maybe it’s something that is important, but that you could delegate?
Take a few minutes now to make yourself a “Not To Do List” so you can free up time for what truly matters.
Sometimes the thing that we think is preventing us from achieving our goal is actually the key to our success.
This simple, counter-intuitive principle is the core idea of Ryan Holiday’s best-selling book, The Obstacle is the Way.
Here’s how you can apply that lesson in your own life:
First, think of some area of life where you’re struggling to find a way forward, and ask yourself:
What’s the obstacle in my way, and how can I use it to my advantage?
Here’s one famous example of someone turning a weakness into a gold medal:
As a student, Dick Fosbury struggled to even qualify to compete in the high jump. His obstacle? Fosbury couldn’t quite master complicated “straddle” technique that athletes used to get over the bar.
Fosbury experimented with other, less popular techniques for getting over the bar that required less coordination. He ended up inventing his own technique, which he used to shatter his school’s high jump record, win an NCAA championship, and take home gold 🥇at the 1968 Olympics.
The Fosbury Flop technique is used by most high jumpers today.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
The Obstacle is the Way