Are You Moving or Moving Forward ...

Allow me to share a passage from a book I am reading, Gridiron Genius, by Michael Lombardi:

During a game against Miami, Kosar was struggling, and Belichick pulled him from the game.

Kosar argued, “How can you pull me? I’m 15 of 19.”

To which Belichick immediately snapped back out of the side of his mouth, “Yeah, for 82 yard.”

Kosar was spending too much time not getting sacked to realize that he was no longer doing the job we were paying him to do.

I don’t know squat about football, but I do know what it is like to be running in place. You think you are making progress, but you are just moving your arms and legs around.

Moving Around

When I was younger, I was a machine. It was not at all uncommon for me to work 24- or 48-hours straight. Day and night were trivially different because I was focused on the work. I threw everything I had at it and thought that I was making progress.

To be fair, the job always got done. But I was just wrecking myself through the effort. I thought that I was doing my best, and maybe I was, but there was always a better way for me to work.

Moving Forward

After years of work and study I have come to realize the futility of what all those hours really amounted to. I had been trying to brute force progress by simply throwing hours and effort at every project. I wasn’t working smart, just hard.

Fortunately, now I realize that there are better ways to work; better strategies. I’ve learned the importance of preparation and examination. Slowing down and making every minute count for two yields so much more benefit that mindlessly beating my head against the clock.

My grandmother told me, “Work smarter, not harder,” but all I heard was “Work.”

Not All Effort is Equal

These days I know that I can in fact accomplish more productivity with less effort if I manage my resources and energy and still lead a normal life. Semi-normal.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Maybe it is just a natural process of age and wisdom. Perhaps it is a necessity since I damn sure can’t work 48-hours at a time any longer. Or perhaps I am finally a little smarter than I used to be and just picked up on some common sense …