Seth Godin On Luck
If you need motivation today, Seth’s got you covered.
…effort is directly related to success. Not all the time, but as much as you would expect. Smarter, harder working, better informed and better liked people do better than other people, most of the time.
For sure. Motivation is key here. Fear of failure is a big stumbling point, but I think that inertia paralysis is bigger. Fear of moving outside of one’s comfort zone.
…that’s the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.
I’ve written about luck before. I don’t buy into it. Anything that’s worth having is worth working for, and in many cases – except lottery winners – it is worked for.
But I’ve slacked off lately. I could throw a dozen half-baked excuses at it immediately – too busy, would rather relax, I’ve got other things I’d rather do – but really, there is no excuse. I’m falling short of the standards I set out for myself earlier in the year. My RSS reader is barely prodded of late. I have a stack of unread books that I haven’t touched in months. I can feel the inertia setting in. Recognised patterns are becoming habits; known personal responsibilities are being shirked.
And it doesn’t feel good. Cognitive dissonance. I look back on most booze-fuelled nights in the company of good friends with fondness, but dude, what exactly are you trying to achieve here?
This is a question I’ll continue to ask myself; this entry will serve as a reminder.
“inertia paralysis” – I LOVE that. Reminds me of that feeling you have just before you’re about to start working (or studying). You really don’t want to start, and it’s like pushing through a brick wall. But once you break it everything is fine and you wonder what you were stalling for all along.
Pile of large books… I know how that feels!
As for boozing it on with friends, I find it ten times funner if I’ve “earned” it during the week, don’t you?
Oh and on an extra note, if you read Robert Greene (if you don’t I think you’d really enjoy his stuff) you’d know that the real trick is to spend a lot of effort, but to make it look easy. We’re all guilty of exaggerating our efforts sometimes.