You are important.
Don’t do unimportant stuff.
When you do unimportant stuff, you are subconsciously affirming that you are unimportant.
Because only unimportant people do unimportant stuff.
Treat yourself better than that.
Step up the importance of your tasks.
Do more of the things you think are important to do.
And do less of the things you know aren’t.
Start reaffirming to yourself that you are, indeed, important and worthy of completing important tasks.
Because you are.
Our busyness is often our enemy; it is the antithesis of freedom.
Freedom is the feeling we get when we’re not busy.
And most of what we spend our days being busy about (e.g. acquiring wealth) is really supposed to be a means for acquiring freedom. The freedom to live life on our own terms.
But, what if the means was in direct opposition to the end goal? What if our work kept us from living on our own terms at all?
Here’s the thing, this is not a call to quit your job and/or shed all of your responsibilities that keep you busy. Rather, it’s a call to carefully reevaluate what it is exactly that you’re so busy with and how it connects to your freedom.
Sometimes we sacrifice doing what we want to do with work because we know it will lead to more future freedom. But, what are you securing future freedom for if you’re sacrificing all of your top priorities now?
Learning how to defend against punches, chokes, and grabs is great. Learning how to defend against laziness, temptation, provocation is better.
Learning how to monetize a website, blog, or article is great. Learning how to write more clearly, concisely, and consistently—is better.
Learning tactics to promote yourself, a product, or service is great. Learning how to make yourself, a product, or service more remarkably great—is better.
It’s easy to invest most of our time into learning what’s sexy. UFC style self-defenses, multiple channel monetization, maximizing reach and distribution. It’s hard to invest time into learning the less-sexy, foundational stuff. But, it’s those foundational skills that give the “sexy” stuff life.
Because what’s the best way to defend against a punch? By never getting into a position of being punched. And how do you do that? By learning foundational character development skills of how to be confident, disciplined, and cool-tempered.
What’s the best thing you can do to make money online? By creating something that serves a need and is thoughtful and generous. Not by creating superficial content, taking short-cuts, or cleverly fooling people into payment plans and sexy funnels.
This is even true for how people see each other. What makes a person sexy? You might argue something about a person’s appearance, but that fades quickly if it isn’t matched with a sexy character. Ashton Kutcher said it perfectly:
“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful and be generous.”
And so I pass it onto you: be smart, thoughtful, and generous. Especially with how you spend your time. Are you investing in foundation or drooling over what appears to be sexy?
“When you pay attention to detail, the big picture will take care of itself.”
George St-Pierre, via MoveMe Quotes
In Martial Arts, the direction of your toes—matters. The placement of your hands—matters. The distribution of your weight—matters. Even the height of your shoulders, the tilt of your head, and the squint of your eyes—matters.
Of course, the general coordination of the move matters, too, but it’s precisely the above mentioned details—the fine motor adjustments—that puts the “Art” in “Martial.” It’s the great divide between what makes “okay” and what makes “great.”
What separates an amateur punch from a professional punch isn’t their ability to quickly extend their hand from their face to a target and back—it’s how the details were minded in the process.
As is the case with basketball dribbles, hockey slap-shots, football throws, etc.—details are what separate beginners from masters and amateurs from pros. Anybody can dribble—few dribble professionally. And the same is true in how things are done in any sport.
But, attention to detail isn’t just activity specific.
The way you do anything is how you do everything. Attention to detail is a character trait that some choose to develop.
It’s a careful awareness. It’s a trained devotion to excellence. It’s the rigorous loyalty to the minutiae. It’s a deliberate decision to improve—beyond where most people stop. It’s a drive for inches when most people park after miles. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s not for the preoccupied. It’s not for the careless.
It’s for the people who choose to be passionate, focused, and committed to paying details the attention they require—in any and every chosen task. It’s why attention is paid and not granted.
And it’s why masterpieces are so valuable—because they’ve been paid for in attention, energy, effort—details—many times over. Details that others find too expensive to pay. Details that, bring the big picture to life. Details that, when removed, would leave masterpieces as just pieces.