They're all the same card.
Dear friend,
Imagine this moment, right now, is a turn in a deck building card game. Your turn has 3 phases: draw, play, discard.
Draw
You’ve invested time, money, and energy in building your draw pile. The TV you choose to watch, the exercise you get, the people you socialize with, the apps you use, the books you read… they all comprise little nuggets, free radicals in your brain-body system that will determine what you decide to do next.
Even though you’ve intentionally built the deck, you have no idea what cards are on top. The odds you’ll draw any one of the remaining cards is the same. This is why it’s important to guard your time and energy. You only get to draw a finite number of cards in any moment. If you’ve filled your deck with garbage and a couple of superpowers, the odds are low you’ll be able to do much with your turn. If you’ve only invested in superpowers, your deck is going to be too small to draw a full hand. You won’t be able to respond to situations as the world changes around you. It’s important to have balance in your deck. Small cards that you can play fast. Big cards you can build towards for multiple turns. Offense, defense, and special teams.
If you want to be able to run 10 miles, or write a book, or love well… you have to do the work to bring those cards into play. It doesn’t mean you’ll draw that card when you want it or that you’ll be able to play it whenever you do draw it. But, knowing the card is in there gives you something to play for. Something to look forward to. Something to structure your game around.
Play
Whatever’s in your hand is what you get. That’s it. While you may have built cards in your deck that allow you to draw more cards, there are still limits on how many cards you can play in a given turn. There’s a limit to what you can accomplish right now.
If we use the tool of drawing more cards without understanding the problem we’re trying to solve, then we can end up with a bunch of cards in hand that don’t do anything to help us win the game. Congratulations, you’ve drawn boku cards and now…
If you haven’t designed the rest of your deck to be able to play all those cards you just drew, all you can do is look. Acting is what I’m after. What you’re after is up to you.
Discard
Some cards will be persistent, meaning they’ll stay in your hand until you play them. Most cards will have to be discarded at the end of your turn. Our brains have limits to how much information they can grasp at moment’s notice. There are dozens of biases described in Kahneman’s Thinking Fast, and Slow and that’s the tip of the iceberg.
If you find yourself hesitant to discard and move on, you’re not alone. That’s also the trap. We get crushed between feeling powerless in a given moment and imposing our will on that moment to change our reality. You’ll only get every moment once. Play the cards you can, discard the rest, and get to the next turn.
The Game Goes On
The long game is the only one that matters. If you’re looking at your hand and feeling “bleh” about what you’ve got, remember that the game goes on. Draw. Play. Discard. Keep moving. Take another turn. Invest in changing your draw pile. If you’re looking at your hand and thinking “hold my beer,…” celebrate, enjoy it, and remember that moments are fleeting. You’ll have to draw again. And whoever you’re playing with will draw again too. Keep upgrading your deck so the next hand can be excellent too.
Every joke that hasn’t been written yet. Every story, movie, song, that hasn’t been written yet is the same. They’re out there in the ether. To make them real, we have to draw them.
Yours,
JT
P.S. Related readings:
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams