I came across a variation of this advice in the book Mathematicians Delight by W.W.Sawyer a long time ago. He said something like; when trying to learn new mathematical ideas/concepts always start with a book 80% of which is already known and 20% is what is new. That way you bolster your confidence with the refresher and have to struggle with only a few concepts at a time. Your motivation and energy can be used optimally. If you think about it, this makes eminent sense. This is the reason i really dislike the "bro/competitive" time-based approach to learning and am a great fan of each person learning at their own pace and only competing with their past selves.
I keep reading all these words about patience, consistency, how it compounds over time. I believe in all of that. But my own reality is this: I seem to have a very high activation threshold around most of things. For some, this means I'm unable to maintain steady, casual pace. By the time I work up enough energy to move past the potential barrier, the scheduled time is up and I should go do something else. In these cases, I naturally fall back to the pattern of working up the energy and then going non-stop. It tends to make the activation barrier even higher, but over time it seems to integrate to more actual progress.
(On that note, being a husband and a father, forcing me to keep a semblance of regular schedule, made this difficult for me.)
> The only exception to this might be short little events, like sure if you have an exam, a bit of stress and a last all out effort can help. If you're competing in some athletic event similarly. But for most other life goals, I'm not so sure.
I wish I knew how to reach that state, instead of having this natural tendency of turning things into "short little events".
If I have a relatively focused task to work on, but I also have meeting in the middle of the day, can be a 30 minute call, I know I will not succeed. I really need that build up and then hold on to that momentum. And after, even when I'm satisfied and happy with my work, its super hard to let go. I will keep looking into improvements during the evening and will linger on it in bed.
I still have to figure out how to deal with this. But then I'm only 29 and just starting my professional career, so enough time to learn and grow.
On the other hand, things that mostly stretch your mind, such as science disciplines, you can do well in your 70s, 80s, or possibly even 90s. If you start at 29 with studying physics, you could get on top of your field by 45-50, leaving you quite some time to enjoy your top of the field.
29 is fine to start with most things I'd guess, especially if you've got experiences you can bring to your new career that others might not have.
But through that all these tasks form a big daunting mountain of stress and effort together and then i keep putting them off and procrastinate.
> There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
That one reminds me what success even means. Simply growing myself, being slightly better today than I was yesterday is accomplishment and success in itself. When you focus on others or external achievements, you tend to get lazy in your approach to growth, you look for shortcuts, push harder than is smart, and you get anxious, nervous, stressed in a way that will slow your growth long term.
> Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a month. We overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.
This one reminds me why you got to give yourself longer horizons to success. Success and accomplishment follow an exponential curve in my opinion, you need to keep that focus and continue to accumulate that momentum until the tipping point.
Maybe you misunderstood the article, but this is what it is about. "How hard should I push myself", one of the factors was just sustainability.
In fact, I think we often would rather push ourselves in an all out burst of max effort exhaustion, than put dedication and consistency behind a goal.
Pushing yourself just a little bit more, but sustainably, consistently, and actually taking your progression slower, giving yourself more time to achieve your goals, but making sure that you're constantly moving little by little closer to it. That's what worked best for me. It means the journey feels easy as well, it just becomes a routine of excellence.
I think what often happens is that we're too impatient, probably because we're anxious about the thing we're trying to achieve, we're stressed about it and would like to get it over with so we can be stress free again, so we give a big push, and you know what, most of the time that push does nothing, and you get more stressed but also exhausted. At that point, flight is often the only recourse left.
The only exception to this might be short little events, like sure if you have an exam, a bit of stress and a last all out effort can help. If you're competing in some athletic event similarly. But for most other life goals, I'm not so sure.