Expand Your Philosophy: It’s a Matter of Consistency, Not Scale

Learned Wisdom
Written By Chris Read

Short principles for long-term clarity—and occasional epiphanies.

How does embracing curiosity, momentum, and mistakes redefine success and fuel mastery?

“Mastery is a rhythm of consistency and focused practice to create momentum, true growth requiring learning from all attempts not predicated on outcome.”

When pursuing goals in life, focus on consistent action over time. Track two key metrics: the total number of attempts and the frequency of attempts per week. The first number provides a reference for how much contact you have had with the subject matter, and the latter provides measure of your trajectory.

An attempt is defined as any work or consideration of the target subject, from emersion in information to intentional action. An attempt is not itself an outcome as outcomes are emergent things that eventuate from momentum and are therefore outside your control. Ground is made by generating momentum, as speed is easier to maintain at speed. Record and reflect on every attempt, regardless of outcome, and you will find that slips and mistakes are the greatest teachers and the greatest source of momentum as you try in subsequent attempts to reduce their prevalence.

Success is not a measure of the progress of completion but of instead your ability to comprehend and manipulate the materials in front of you to your advantage. The more times you do this, the more commonalities you see, the more momentum you find in areas that seemed unrelated, until eventually you become a master at manoeuvring multiple contexts as your skills transcend the context itself. Appreciating the craft of mastery is a powerful tool that allows you to achieve amazing things. Celebrate the curiosity you encounter in every attempt and watch and listen to masters closely, as their finesse and power are unparalleled.

So, stop looking at “success” and “failure” and instead see your victories, slips, and mistakes for what they are – information to process. With every circumstance, you must ask “What did I learn from this?” and “Can I be sure that this is correct?”. If your answers consist of “nothing” or “I’m not sure” then you are not looking hard enough. This may sound like perfectionism, but in truth it is not, as the state of perfection is an impossibility. Perfectionism is not about learning but about the expectations you hold regarding the outcomes you will yield and how they differ from your current reality. Instead, it is a constant curious seeking, which greatly outstrips it perfectionistic rival as it is about updating your mental models to more accurately reflect reality based on learned experience.

If you cannot find something you wish to do better, then find instead something to avoid doing, as there is always something to learn. Overcome inertia by making many attempts and greedily learning everything you can from them. One day you will find that things begin to make sense and success graces you with its presence. Attempts towards creation are the act of creation itself, within which you are exploring the beautiful tensions of life. So get out there are create some momentum.

Reflection Questions:

  • Imagine another person, older, better looking, more powerful than you, and horrible and obnoxious to engage with. They managed to beat you to your decision and have made the exact same decision as you did now. Your spite makes you want to point out what they did wrong, what was it?

  • Imagine you hated an interaction with someone, what did you learn about what not to do? How would you change it and action it in your own behaviour?

  • What is the smallest, consistent attempt I can make? Set a timer and see what falls out.   

Songs That Embodies This For Me:

Resources You Could Explore:

Other Creations:

 

Chris Read
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