500 Words a Week - Sandcastle or Sistine Chapel?

In the last blog we spoke about how we might get stuck in a feeling of being nowhere near where we would like to go. The title from this blog was taken from something mentioned on the Tim Ferris show in a recent episode with Cal Newport talking about slow productivity.

For me what I took from the discussion on slow productivity, is accepting that things take time.

We can try to rush progress, cut corners here and there. In doing this what we end up building is a sandcastle. A sandcastle breaks at the first hint of pressure, it breaks from the lightest changes in its surrounding element, it breaks with the ebb and flow of the tide.

When we understand timeframes a little better. When we are conscious of not rushing the process, focusing on being present for it and trying to improve our craft. We are building our own Sistine chapel.

The only danger is with us looking at this long-term view, we might take our foot off the pedal altogether. Eventually finding ourselves grinding to a halt. Being conscious of the fact that things take time does not mean we stop. We keep showing up, regardless of our ability or energy that day, we are there. Consistency is an underrated attribute. Applying consistency over long periods of time is even further underrated.

A previous blog from Cal which I love talks about what we can learn from Steve Martin. Steve Martin has a simple method for achieving success: “Be so good they can’t ignore you”. Cal states this simplifies our quest. Allowing us to forget all the frustration, tricks and worry, and just focus on becoming really good. In trying to achieve this Steve recommends two pieces of advice.

Firstly, simply putting in the time is not enough. We need to apply some form of innovation to that we are trying to become good at. Cal states we need to understand what the best do and figure out why they do this. Then mix, match, and reconstruct these elements into our own unique selling point.

The second piece of advice from Steve is to not wander. Steve attributes “diligence” to his success. In this he is referring to focusing on one field and aiming to master that. “If you don’t saturate your life in a single quest, you’ll dilute your focus to a point where becoming outstanding becomes out of reach.”

Are you looking to build a sandcastle or your own Sistine chapel?

Our Sistine chapels might not be anything big or grandeur such as what Steve alluded too, but for us, they could be the quality of our mind, or our ability to truly experience what goes on around us. Don’t allow the analogy to make you think everything worth achieving is in the physical world. People will torment themselves in aiming to achieve external metrics of success.

"A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned." - Naval

These things could be our Sistine chapel. I once had a path I wanted to go down that I was so sure off. Yet things change, we grow and the people around us grow also. However, one thing I’m clear on is that aspects such as the above are things I will always aim for.

Sandcastle or Sistine Chapel?