Hard Work, Focus, Mindset, and... Luck?

 From this review of Michael Phelps' book No Limits:

Plenty of other anecdotes in the book directly undercut the starry-eyed thesis of No Limits. Late in 2007, Michael slipped in an icy parking lot outside a Buffalo Wild Wings (“one of those restaurants with a sports theme”) and broke his wrist, a setback that could have seriously jeopardized his training schedule, and his Beijing dreams. Thankfully, the injury was not more serious because the parking lot of a Buffalo Wild Wings is just about the saddest possible place for a premier athlete to meet their demise.

I guess Michael didn’t consider the reality that, as he was suspended in midair over that hard, hard asphalt, he was completely helpless in the face of an unfolding universe. A little gust of wind here, an unseen splotch of black ice there, and it’s say his ACL that gets shredded, and those eight medals go to someone not flat on his back in a parking lot. Phelps has always wanted to win swimming races very badly and he has worked very hard to do it. He doesn’t win any races without this drive, but he didn’t win the races just because he wanted it the most. It’s also entirely necessary that his life be a blessed chain of advantageous circumstances, from the dimensions of his body—essentially ideal for swimming—to sustaining only minor injuries at Buffalo Wild Wings to growing up with an older sister who trained to swim in the Olympics.

 

 Or, as Aristotle put it in the Nicomanchean Ethics,

 

Nevertheless it is manifest that happiness also requires external goods in addition, as we said; for it is impossible, or at least not easy, to play a noble part unless furnished with the necessary equipment.⁴ For many noble actions  require instruments for their performance, in the shape of friends or wealth or political power; [16] also there are certain external advantages, the lack of which sullies supreme felicity, such as good birth, satisfactory children, and personal beauty: a man of very ugly appearance or low birth, or childless and alone in the world, is not our idea of a happy man, and still less so perhaps is one who has children or friends¹ that are worthless, or who has had good ones but lost them by death. [17] As we said therefore, happiness does seem to require the addition of external prosperity, and this is why some people identify it with good fortune （though some identify it with virtue²）

SOURCE

Notes on Brian Johnson's Genius-Work Equation

 I first read this here. (Link doesn't work anymore). An overview of Brian's work is here. 

It is interesting to see the evolution of the equation. It started out without consistency the exponential factor. In fact in the initial stages, he only had time as a multiplier. Next, this was refined to consistency. In the final form of the equation, the product of focus, energy and the one thing now is raised to the power of consistency. 

Thus Brian Johnson gives us the final form of this equation (for now, at least):

Genius Work  = T x (E x F x W.I.N.)^C

Soul Force = (Energy x Focus x W.I.N.)^C   

 

Just for reference, the equation by Cal Newport that inspired this can be found here. 

I thought it would be interesting to track the provenance of each of the terms of the equation in the literature of self-improvement. 

ENERGY:

The Hidden Secret in Napoleon Hill's Think & Grow Rich according to Brian Kim 

Start With Why

Man's Search for Meaning

The Intellectual Life - Sertillanges

FOCUS:
Focus - the hidden driver of excellence

Essentialism

 

WHAT'S IMPORTANT NOW:

The Sacrament of the Present Moment - Jean Pierre de Caussade

The One Thing - Gary Keller

The Book of Ichigo Ichie

The Right use of School Studies for the Glory of God - Simone Weil

Ekhart Tolle - The Power of Now

Ryan Holiday - Stillness is the Way

CONSISTENCY:
Atomic Habits - James Clear

Tiny Habits - BJ Fogg

Mini Habits 

Small Habits Revolution - Damon Zacharides

The Compound Effect

The Slight Edge

My Experiences with BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits:

 I first heard about Tiny Habits from The Prodigal Catholic Blog. At that time, BJ Fogg hadn't yet published his book. There was only the one week email coaching programme. I had already read Atomic Habits by James Clear. Looking for further information, I also came across Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and Small Habits Revolution by Damon Zahariades, both of which I read. I also signed up for the email coaching programme. 

Next to Accceptance and Commitment Therapy, this has been the most liberating psychological discipline I have encountered in recent years. The email programme really helped get me out of a rut in my life.

However, the nagging thought "It's not going to last, it'll all come crashing down. You'll see!" keeps playing over and over in a loop in my mind. (In those days, I was still a novice at ACT and so I couldn't practice cognitive defusion as well as I should have.) And in truth, I did crash. But I know exactly what caused that. 

I allowed my tiny habits to become bloated - and in a non-organic manner, too. I was trying an SRS, and I decided I had to follow the Leitner Calendar strictly. So then as the number of cards built up in three months time, I simply couldn't follow the daily schedule. At times, it would mount up to more than 100 cards per day, and I only had 30 minutes or so in my schedule for the SRS. So the predictable thing happened, and I entered the anxiety-avoidance loop and the SRS collapsed. That was a blow to my confidence and a large part of the Tiny Habits structure I'd built up collapsed too. 

Upon reflection, I understood I had not curated my habits as one would a garden. I had tried to build a skyscraper over a few months. Later, I bought BJ Fogg's book, and I believe he does address this concept in one of the chapters. 

These days, I do what Tynan says in Superhuman by Habit, as summarised here by James Clear:

When you don't feel like doing a habit, do a crappy job.

Another problem was that I had overloaded my calendar, and was trying to grow a forest of habits in a location where there was only space for a kitchen garden. I realised this when I read The One Thing by Gary Keller and The Dip by Seth Godin.

Armed with the wisdom from these failures, I pick up the pieces and set out to tame/slay the dragon of Chaos within me once again.