Washboard abs, great hires, and market dominance

Abs are made in the kitchen, championships are won on the training ground, and a sustainable body of creative work is built on a foundation of the creator’s psychological self-acceptance.

Visakan Veerasamy, “I don’t wanna!”

Most of what we celebrate are trailing indicators. They’re exciting! A major product launch, lapping your competitors. Pulling a major hire into your team and watching them soar. Giving a successful talk at a conference.

These are great events, and we should celebrate them!

They are terrible expectations.

If you put in your work each day with the sole expectation of winning the market in 3 years, you’re going to flounder, burn out, and likely fail–and should none of those apply, you’re still counting on some luck.

If you instead spend each day looking for where you can do slightly better at one thing than the day before, and do it each and every day, with the expectation of getting slightly better…you’re going to get better at that thing. With time, the difference will be dramatic.

And you might not end up with the abs or the championship or the one perfect position or hire or owning the market. You’ll probably get some big wins mixed in there, too. They’ll be trailing indicators, and they’ll feel great, and they won’t be what you expected.

And when you’re done celebrating, it’ll be time to get back to setting expectations around what you can do better tomorrow.

Editor’s note: Ctrl+Shift will be sporadic through the next few weeks, resuming in earnest in 2025. Happy holidays and new year to all!