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You Can’t Rush Success, so Stop Trying to
Don’t Buy Into a Grand Plan, Just Climb One Rung at a Time
Structure is great for giving people things to focus on and to channel their creative energy through.
Structure is bad for constraining people and sucking away their motivation.
It’s easy to either become too rigid with your structure, or to embody a swirl of chaotic energy. You need to know when to do what.
One way to do this is to find a common definition of success. Cal Newport writes, “When deciding to embrace a self-motivated ambition, choose a definition of success that your aunt in Peoria would understand and find impressive. This is not about succumbing to the status quo, but instead setting yourself up to receive the brutal but useful feedback needed to eventually start producing things too good to be ignored.”
I really appreciate Shea Serrano’s interview with Michael Gervais on Finding Mastery, because his approach to writing is so matter-of-fact. There was no grand plan; Serrano and his wife Larami were expecting twins, and they needed to make more money.
The goal was simple: Shea Serrano needed to make an extra $400 per month. He was looking at the grocery stores, at Target, and at waitering jobs at restaurants, but none of them would…
