Published: 2022-12-15
When you're felling a tree with an axe, it can feel like it takes forever to fall. 🌴
You need to hit the same point on the tree very precisely for hundreds (thousands?) of chops.
Finally, a single strike is what sends the tree over.
The outcome of that single strike is what everyone sees and hears from a distance.
What they didn't see was the thousands of chops it took to get to that final strike.
That's the unsexy truth about achieving outcomes, goals, and dreams. The "overnight successes" seem overnight until you find out that the person you admire took years mastering their craft before they found success. And in that time, very few were interested in what they were doing.
The mindset of consistency, putting in the reps, and putting in the daily work of improving is what ultimately gets us there. There aren't any hacks or shortcuts. And why would you want the shortcuts?
Ultimately, we want autonomy, mastery, and purpose in life. Mastery comes with daily repetitions. When you fall in love with the process, you stop fixating on the outcome. When the outcome happens, it's not very surprising and you may even find that you didn't need it after all. The feeling of mastery starts to stick with you though.
So - fall in love with the chopping. Celebrate when the tree comes down. Then keep going.