One Thing

Before you can do anything, you must learn to do One Thing.

This is a important topic to me because I see it as the key to avoiding breakdown in the Process of Achievement.

Our lives are a series of single decisions, single moments, with the only common element being that we are along for the ride in each of them. The only thing common with each scene is that "we" are there watching it unfold. Everything else comes and goes. While we may choose to obligate ourselves to others, ultimately, it's worth recognizing that there's only one person that's going to always be along for the full ride.

True selflessness most easily arises through compassionate selfishness. I have this little play that runs through my head quite often where I seek to explain to a friend that the most important skill for him to learn is "getting to no". In a world with an unlimited appetite for our time, our emotions, our input, our energy -- in order to be successful in a specific area, we must develop our skills to say no thanks to many attractive alternatives.

The Eighth Habit defines compromise as saying no to an attractive opportunity in order to do something more attractive. Most often, I find that we are saying "no thanks" today in order to free time to work towards deeper fulfillment tomorrow. I am sure that there is an element of training (or programming) required to be gratified in working towards gratification at a later date. Heck, I do that all the time and used to think that Western religions were a bit nuts for being based on that. Comes back to Mergler being most satisfied in doing what it takes to outcompete, rather than the performance on game day (which becomes inevitable).

I would arrive each year knowing that I was going to have a good race. The only question being "How Good?" -- Dave Scott

It can be a lot easier to take care of someone else than live our personal truths. Acting in an "honourable" way as we extinguish the passion in our souls through self-sacrifice. There is never a shortage of honourable causes that we can support.

Likewise, it is easy to fall into a trip of competition/effort towards a false god -- performance addiction; process addiction. My annual break works quite well for me to avoid becoming too engrossed. Of course, I am most happy when deep in process working towards achievement.

These days my "one thing" appears to be getting out of bed. If I'm up then it's going to be a solid productive day. At other times in my life, it's been things like... don't eat bread, skip the sugar, don't drink more than two beers -- the key being to break the pattern of self-sabbotage that is triggered from chosing to go down a path that doesn't support my goals.

High level achievement in any field requires strong project management skills. When we look at high achievers it's tempting to seek to emulate what they do. Similarly, when we look at fulfilled people, it's tempting to seek to emulate their actions -- or -- ask them what the secret is to their happiness.

This is a trap.

Everyone wants that magic answer. Just tell me what to do! Well, I could tell you what to do but it would simply be a recipie for making myself happy. In fact, any advice other than to look within will probably fail because my actions are merely a reflection of what I must do. They work for me because of what I must do.

Satisfaction comes from following our own truth, not the truth of our chosen guru, coach, mentor, peers.

Even armed with the answer -- most folks simply cannot do what it takes. They keep breaking down early in the process. Thinking too far ahead and being over-scheduled are the two most common sources of breakdown.

That is why my advice is so "simple". Because until we can master the simplicity of consistency, we'll never be able to handle the complexity of elite process management. Our minds are constantly being distracted from the task at hand.

The people, the publications, the thoughts within our heads... that distract us from constantly chipping away towards our goals -- they are often doing us a disservice.

Take a catalogue of where (and with whom) you spend your time. Cross reference that against your personal Top Ten list. The results will surprise most.

You can do a similar thing with money -- actual spending vs Top Ten things that provide personal satisfaction. If you can name more than 35% of your discretionary spending without the aid of a log then you are better than average.

So there's my first attempt on this topic.

• Schedule less;
• Take stock where you spend your resources (time being the most important); and
• Remove habits/people that impede the simple actions required for incremental progress.

Simple, not easy.

It's not that mitochondrial density doesn't matter. It's that it doesn't matter to you. I'll keep researching though and let you know what I find...