Weekly Wisdom #311 - Doing Hard Things, Ladders of Wealth Creation & Having Less To Do

Doing Hard Things, Ladders of Wealth Creation & Having Less To Do

​

Happy Monday!

Last weekend I biked 630km as part of a local endurance cycling race.

It was by far the hardest physical challenge I've ever completed (and I ran a marathon last month too).

It was the right amount of discomfort to still be fun, and I did it with my friend Gavin, which definitely helped the fun factor too.

But most people ask me: why?

Nat Eliason touches on it in one of his recent essays:

The ability to do hard things is perhaps the most useful ability you can foster in yourself or your children. And proof that you are someone who can do them is one of the most useful assets you can have on your life resume.

Our self-image is composed of historical evidence of our abilities.

The more hard things you push yourself to do, the more competent you will see yourself to be.

That summarizes it pretty well: doing hard things gives you proof—or a reminder—that you can do them.

It resets the bar for what you consider possible.

And it builds confidence that you can tackle the next hard thing.

Whether it's a marathon, a bike race, or just getting through a tough work day, choosing to do hard things builds confidence for the next time you face something difficult.

And the next time, you might not have a choice on whether to face it or not.

Have a great week!

Graham

​

Links

📖 Proof You Can Do Hard Things - Nat Eliason - A short read, this is about the reasons why you should do hard things—and encourage your kids to do so as well.

It's also about when it might be acceptable to let your kids get poor grades.

📖 The ladders of wealth creation: a step-by-step roadmap to building wealth - Nathan Barry - This is an article I refer back to consistently when I'm thinking about how my own career and skills trajectory is progressing.

Some of the key takeaways that get expanded upon in the article:

8 principles to grow your wealth and income over time

Extra time and money need to be reinvested

You can skip ahead, but you still have to learn the lessons from each step

Apply your existing skills in a new way to build wealth

There’s a difference between working for a better wage and truly building wealth

Using an earlier rung on the ladder to fund the next one

Moving between ladders often means a decrease in income

Each step is easier with an audience

It takes longer than you think, but the results can be incredible

Tweet of the Week

​This Tweet from Jason Fried is an excerpt from their book It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, one of my favourites (you can read my book notes for it here):

Jason Fried-->

@jasonfried

HAVE LESS TO DO

Time-management hacks, life hacks, sleep hacks, work hacks. These all reflect an obsession with trying to squeeze more time out of the day, but rearranging your daily patterns to find more time for work isn’t the problem. Too much shit to do is the problem.

The… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1803864667154190705

3:57 PM • Jun 20, 2024

81

Retweets

639

Likes

Read 23 replies

​