Day 17 | Daily Dose of learning
This project is inspired by the ‘100-day project’, a challenge consisting of committing to doing an activity everyday for 100 days.
I have decided to write about one thing I learn everyday for the next 30 days. This can be a skill, a deep concept to elaborate on, or a mere life lesson that made me become aware of something I consider relevant.
The decision is based on the belief that “we are what we repeatedly do”, as Valentin Perez put it.
The Impossible list
The impossible list is a more actionable and responsibility-holding bucket list. I encountered the impossible list on the course ‘How to build habits that last’ by Thomas Frank on Skillshare.
Write down a list of the things you want to accomplish in life. And then follow up. Not in a naive manner. Follow up focusing on a small number of goals at a time. As Thomas Frank suggests, also by recounting an anecdote from Warren Buffet, pick 3 goals from the list, and then get rid of all the others. This is useful to avoid distraction and procrastination-inducing activities.
Focus on building habits that will eventually lead to the achievement of the target as a byproduct.
Stick to the habits. Especially during the ‘dip’ phase: that period in which practicing the habit (e.g. playing the guitar) is hard, daunting and the initial spike in enthusiasm has faded away. By overcoming that phase and powering through it, you’ll be very close to making it. And be aware that the dip phase is when most people usually quit.
Finally, the Impossible list is not necessarily finite. It is a constantly-expanding list. Most of the times, achieving a goal does not mean that there is no next step. Every skill or life-event can be improved upon. So, as the basic principle behind the impossible list is to build habits and enjoy the process of achieving the goal rather than just setting a deadline and not a schedule, enriching the list with new steps to achieve is one of the differences between the impossible list and a generalist bucket list.
There are 3 types of progress, according to Thomas:
Gear acquisition, i.e. the initial stage of ‘motivation’ and purchase of the necessary stuff to learn a skill
Learning phase, the initial stage in which a lot of things make sense rapidly and progress is rather fast
Deliberate practice, which is where the ‘dip’ phase occurs. Practicing a lot is required when it comes to learning a skill, and overcoming the dip stage is empowering.