Quick snippets from my morning read on Thursday, 05th November 2020
Today’s morning read focuses on the Common beliefs we get wrong as adopted from James Clear’s article, Overrated vs. Underrated: Common Beliefs We Get Wrong. These are my top 5, in no particular order.
Overrated vs. Underrated: Common Beliefs We Get Wrong
As a society, we often overvalue unimportant things and undervalue the ideas and strategies that make a real difference. Here’s my take on a few common beliefs that I think we often get wrong.
Overrated: Being busy Vs. Underrated: Doing one thing at a time.
Being in motion is not the same thing as taking action. As a society, we’ve fallen into a trap of busyness and overwork. More critically, we have mistaken all this activity as an indicator of living an important life. The underlying thought seems to be, “Look how busy I am? If I’m doing all this work, I must be doing something important.” And, by extension, “I must be important because I’m so busy.”
Overrated: Degrees, certifications, and credentials Vs. Underrated: Courage and creativity.
Degrees can be important. (I don’t want to be operated on by a neurosurgeon who didn’t attend medical school.) But as my friend Charlie Gilkey told me, “Most people need degrees because they don’t have the courage to ask for what they want.” In many cases, the courage to ask for what you want and a willingness to solve other people’s problems is all you really need. The degrees, the awards, going to the “right” school or being born into the “right” family—none of these things are a prerequisite for success.
Overrated: Watching the news Vs. Underrated: Reading old books.
By default, any good book that is more than 10 years old is filled with life-changing ideas. Why? Because bad books are forgotten after a decade or two. Any lasting book must be filled with ideas that stand the test of time. Meanwhile, the news is filled with fleeting information. We justify paying attention to the media because we think it makes us informed, but being informed is useless when most of the information will be unimportant by tomorrow. The news is just a television show and, like most TV shows, the goal is not to deliver the most accurate version of reality, but the version that keeps you watching. You wouldn’t want to stuff your body with low quality food. Why cram your mind with low quality thoughts?
Overrated: Discovering the “new” thing Vs. Underrated: Mastering the fundamentals.
I’ve been guilty of jumping at the latest tactic or strategy, just like everyone else. We fool ourselves into thinking that a new tactic will change the fact that we need to do the work. There really isn’t much of a secret to most things. Want to be a better writer? Write more. Want to be stronger? Lift more. Want to learn a new language? Speak the language more. The greatest skill in any endeavor is doing the work. You don’t need more time, more money, or better strategies. You just need to do the work.
This particular belief reminds me of the understanding the value chain of a business concept as presented by Vusi Thembekwayo.
Overrated: Winning Vs. Underrated: Improving.
Too often, we value immediate results over long-term improvement. CFOs play accounting games to meet quarterly earnings projections. Police chiefs fudge the numbers to make crime rates appear lower. Students cheat on exams because getting an A is more important than learning the material. Learning, growth, and improvement are undervalued in the name of getting faster results. The shame of it all is that if we could find the time to focus on the process, the outcomes would follow shortly after.
You can read the full article by James Clear at the link below:
And as always, if you enjoyed this, check out the rest of my daily snippets, curated daily, right here on The Red Notebook.
