Getting Unstuck: Focusing on “How” Instead of “What”
Getting Unstuck: Focusing on “How” Instead of “What”
Our problem isn’t information, it’s execution.
Happy Sunday 🙂
If you have tomorrow off of work, I hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!
If you’re feeling stuck or need a push to take the first step toward something you’ve had on your to-do list for a while, today’s newsletter is for you.
I hope the thoughts and prompts below serve as a jumping-off point for actionable reflection, and as always, thanks for reading!
Kevin
Getting Unstuck: Focusing on “How” Instead of “What”
Without knowledge, action is useless and knowledge without action is futile.
Abu Bakr
We all know what we should be doing, but we don’t pay enough attention to how we’re doing it.
Information on its own is not enough to close the gap between where we are today and where we’d like to be. If knowing “what” to do was the problem, then the internet would have been the only thing we needed to get six-pack abs and make millions of dollars this year.
We have more information at our fingertips than we can possibly comprehend and yet we still feel stuck. We know exactly what we need to do to move forward and achieve our goals, but we chronically fall short because we focus on what to do not how to do it.
Worthwhile pursuits in life are simple, but not easy.
Running a marathon is simple, run a little bit more each day for a few months and you’ll be good to go, but this doesn’t make it easy.
The challenge in running a marathon is not figuring out what to do or what kind of training plan to use. The challenge is learning how to wake up every day and make time for a run. How to finish a run when the tank is empty. How to recover effectively. How to fuel during a long run.
We can learn about what to do in these situations from a friend, a coach, or reading online, and be stuck.
Feeling stuck is an execution problem, not an information problem.
The frustration of being stuck is because we know exactly what to do, but we can’t bring ourselves to actually do it.
Knowing what to do is great, but it’s useless unless we figure out how to do it. How to stay consistent. How to make time. How to overcome obstacles. How to master the unique nature of each worthwhile pursuit as it fits into our own lives.
Even with detailed instructions on what to do, building a chair from Ikea is incredibly challenging. The instructions are helpful, but they’re useless when compared to the experience we get from learning how to do it for ourselves. We can assemble each new chair faster than the last once we understand how to do it.
We all know what to do. The difference between good and great is figuring out the how.
The people we admire don’t have any secret information that we don’t. They’ve simply mastered how to do what is most important.
Progress doesn’t come from having superior information. When we feel stuck, our instinct is to turn outwards and seek new information, but improvement comes when we turn inward.
Improving requires trying, failing, and learning. There are no shortcuts to making progress on the worthwhile pursuits that help us become a bit better each day. The only way to figure out the how is by doing.
No amount of blog posts, YouTube videos, Instagram stories, or internet research can replace the learning that comes from diving in headfirst.
When we’re stuck, we already know exactly what we need to do. We just need to go do it.
Prompts
Where have you focused too much energy on “what” to do in the last few weeks?
Where do you feel stuck?
What action can you take this week to roll up your sleeves and focus on the “how”?
Deep Dive
The Mistake Smart People Make: Being In Motion vs. Taking Action - James Clear
Practical and tactical advice from James Clear.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin