i don't care how talented you are or how much potential you may have, if you can't consistently do things when you don't feel like doing them, you'll never build anything worth having
currently obsessing over that one bojack horseman quote:
“it gets easier. every day it gets a little easier, but you gotta do it every day. that’s the hard part.”
The skill that changed my life: Learning to think in systems, not goals. Goals say "lose 20 pounds." Systems say "never eat alone, always walk during calls. don't let bad food into the house." Goals rely on willpower. Systems rely on environment.
my brother moved back home at 34 after his startup failed and we were all being very careful about it until thanksgiving when my grandpa asked directly across the table "so what happened." my brother said "it didn't work out." my grandpa said "why not." my mom said "dad" and my grandpa said "I'm asking because I want to know, not because I'm judging." my brother looked at him for a second and then talked for eleven minutes straight. really talked. about what went wrong and what he'd missed and what he'd learned and what he wished he'd done. nobody interrupted. my grandpa just ate his food and nodded. when my brother finished my grandpa said "I had a business fail in 1971. cost me everything. I've never told any of you that." my dad said "what?" and my grandpa said "hardware store on clemson avenue. lasted fourteen months." nobody knew. forty-three years nobody knew. my grandpa said "I drove past that building for thirty years and eventually it stopped hurting and started feeling like information." my brother said "information about what" and my grandpa said "about what I actually wanted. which was not that hardware store." my brother is doing something different now. smaller. nothing glamorous. he says it feels like the right size. my grandpa asked about it at easter and my brother talked for eleven minutes again and my grandpa did the same thing. just ate and nodded. some people teach you that failure is just a building you drive past until it tells you something useful.