Doing is the Only Thing That Matters for Your Goals - Snapshot 3

Release date: 15 Dec 2024

Views: 42

Welcome to a new issue of my weekly newsletter!

I discuss what I've been up to in terms of building and share anything that I've taken in that you might find useful.

I have three aims with this newsletter:

1. Share useful information.
2. Track my own progress.
3. Become better at writing.

Let's get into it.

Built this Week

Last week I shared how I've had to abandon a previous project that I was working on and I'm back to the idea generation phase.

In the past week, my free time has been spent on trying to come up with an idea that can provide a lot of value to a small group of people. But I haven't been able to come up with something as of yet.

Whenever I struggle with ideas I often come back to an article by Derek Sivers titled Seeking inspiration?. I also talked about this when I wrote about my output equation. Lesson to take away is that try to focus on output and action if you're struggling with ideas. Almost always doing something is better than doing nothing.

Trying to create anything even if you think it might not work is better than not doing anything at all.

A friend of mine asked me about a problem he was having for some of his work. The problem he presented with me with was a really good idea and I think I could help him tackle it as well.

I've been trying to do research on how I can best solve that problem. Even if the idea doesn't work out for me I might be able to help someone and also learn some new stuff. So that's what I've been focusing on recently.

It involves learning how to scrape in a systematic way.

I'll let you know how that goes next week.

Insights and Resources

I wanted to share a model I often think about a lot when I find myself not taking action towards my goals.

I came across this from Alex Harmozi where he emphasises on how doing is the only thing that counts.

He goes against the Be, Do, Have model that I first learned about when I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey some years back.

Stephen's model says that for any goal in life you should go through the Be, Do, Have model.

For example, let's say I have the goal of becoming a really good, accomplished software engineer.

For this goal the model looks like this:

1. Be — Adopt the mindset of what the person with my goal looks like. Be disciplined, curious, resourceful etc.
2. Do — Regularly code. Do all the actions that the person with your goal does in their day to day life.
3. Have — By going through this process you will have the job, career growth and everything else that comes with being an accomplished software engineer.

Alex says he disagrees with this approach and doesn't like to look at things through this lens.

His approach is as follow.

If the doing of something results in us having our goal then we don't have to worry having because it will just come by doing.

And doing is the actual thing you can control.

And finally, we describe people as a result of the behaviours they do.

Someone is known as a truthful person if they never lie.

A person is known as a runner when they practice running regularly.

And so being also happens as a result of doing something.

So doing is all that matters.

I like this approach because it keeps me focused on the fact that I should only worry about my actions for anything in life.

• If you want to become someone that doesn't lie, then always telling the truth is the only thing that counts towards that goal.
• Eating clean and exercising regularly is the only thing that counts towards having a healthy fit body.
• Practising a craft (coding, writing etc) consistently is the only thing that counts towards you becoming good at that craft.

I hope you can find this philosophy of thinking useful in your own life as well.

Feel free to reach to me via Twitter or email :)