Sitting down to write this morning I was struck by the importance of tooling (i.e. platforms and applications that facilitate my work and creative processes) in my routine. I started writing in my Day One journal but quickly pivoted to Notion (better to both aggregate not only my thoughts but links to supporting evidence, to do lists, and search). I turned on my Spotify and transitioned from my programmed “daylist” playlist which serves up different songs based on the time of day and activities Spotify expects me to be engaging in to a “music for writing” - all sounds, no vocals.
Tools like Notion and Spotify establish the “set & setting” - which is to say they create the environment for me to then deliver work product. My ruminations on tooling got me thinking about inputs versus outputs. These tools, along with my experiences, and research represent inputs for my writing. The output of course is what you are currently reading. It would stand to reason then that the inputs are essential to the production of the output. Yet, so often as a society we focus on the outputs (I achieved X, I won Y) without really taking the time to study the inputs.
What are the biggest inputs in our lives that determine our success? I recently listened to a podcast with performance psychologist Dr. Gio Valiante on discipline and resilience. The conversation naturally made it’s way to the classic debate of nature versus nurture. While certain aspects of psychology are genetically hard coded (personality and memory may move on the margins but by and large are handed down to us) environment has an outsized impact on our probability of success. There is a reason a disproportionate amount of world class athletes come from dire straights while kids growing up on pristinely manicured tennis courts tend to fare worse. When failure is not an option, when the stakes are at their highest, we humans push the boundaries of our potential.
How do we set ourselves up for success in our daily lives? Do we explicitly take control over where we spend on our time and who we spend it with? Are we confident that if we looked back at our decisions from the past year they would align with the person we tell ourselves we want to be in our heads?
The truth is most of us fall back into comfort. Back into routine. We fail to challenge ourselves to live up to our own ideals. We spend too much time in places we hate because we now have something to lose. We are not driven by the need to succeed as much as we are the need not to fail. To not go back to where we were even a few years ago. Expectations are a fickle thing. The more we achieve the more we fight with ourselves for meaning.
What about our relationships? How often do we get caught in an episode of Days of our Lives, grabbing our popcorn to watch the drama unfold on social media. We throw up our picket signs and light our torches to yell at the unjustness of it all. For what? I am convinced most people online are either masochists or have given up their free will. Why else then would we spend so much time being miserable about things outside of our control?
I’m convinced most of us would be better off if we spent just a bit more time crafting our environments for success. If we looked at our environment as tools to be hand selected and switched out as necessary. These micro decisions each day make up who we are to the world. If you want to impact the big things in your life maybe it’s time to sweat the small stuff.