How to create

Prohairesis, Ancient Greek, translated to a reasoned choice, the ability to choose how we respond to the world around us.

One of the hardest parts of today’s age is access - untapped access to what everyone else is doing. It’s, of course, brilliant in its own right; to click three buttons and see the incredible things people are doing is a real privilege— observed well, it can fuel you, but it’s also a curse.

The human mind works as a comparison device. It’s only natural that you, after learning that an 18-year-old has just made your entire salary in one day, feel like shit.

The answer? Well, there is no singular answer, like everything, it’s a cocktail of ideas that will help you through, but he’s the base alcohol - is prohairesis.

Reasoned choice, a chosen response. Here’s how to get there.

Hours, days, months can be spent in between choice - knowing what to build, most people get stuck in the in-between phase and so never start. This is a cruel lesson that steals years. If you haven’t decided, most of the time, you’ve just wasted a huge amount of time.

They could have been great if only they had picked a lane and put all their focus into it so they got good enough to win — it’s the truth for so many people, don’t let that be you.

They tell themselves they're deciding, so they consume but never really do much. They exist in ‘could haves’, not ‘did does’. Procrastination labelled as productivity is a dangerous game.

The good news is that you can prepare yourself for the opportunity by building skills that you will likely need later on. Don’t make your first thing your big bet. Don’t have everything riding on it. Don’t make it to be this ‘big’ thing. Instead, reduce the stakes, make your next project your warm-up project.

There’s a reason you feel disheartened by your attempts or their lack of. You’re not producing, so you don’t feel of value.

But then you are struck by the next question- but what do I produce?

You sit there, stuck by the prospect of all the things you could be doing, so of course, you do none. The key, at least I’ve found, is to create rules.

Rules that guardrail your time so that you can focus on producing.

Early mornings are hard because your brain has barely had time to wake up. Blurry-eyed, you sit at your desk trying to produce, but of course, your mind isn’t quite there yet.

Instead, use this time to warm up. Lately, I’ve been doing 10-minutes of intentional scrolling - paying attention to the things that take my attention and then, for 30 seconds, I think about what I’ve just read.

How to consume well (so it serves to enhance your judgement and decision-making):

• Do I agree with this?

• Why might this be wrong?

• What parts of this do I like?

Here’s the key distinction, though: I’m teaching myself to step back from what I’m reading and form my own opinion. Content can serve you well if you use it as fuel for your fire, not water.

Have a single focus. Not seven, one. Focus is the single forcing function that will allow you to go further and deeper.

Don’t try to do ten things today, try to do one. You will make less progress by dancing across tasks. Learning to focus is a skill in itself.

Tell yourself that you will commit to this one thing and then do it.

Literally have that single tab open, work on your thing for the hours you’ve agreed with yourself, and don’t stop until you’ve done what you said you will.

Make a list of the skills you will likely need for whatever ‘thing’ you want to become. Most likely, you don’t have a ‘how’, but you have a ‘what’ - to run a big business, to make $10,000/month, whatever it might be.

You know where you want to be, what you want to achieve; you just don’t know the vehicle.

You might recall that Jeff Bezos famously asked himself what won’t change in ten years rather than what will - don’t ask yourself what will change, ask yourself what matters when things change?

Here’s the question:

“What won’t change about making money, building trust, or creating useful things?”

The answer:

• Writing clearly

• Building trust

• Building an audience

• Sales and marketing

It’s a funny thing, the human brain.

I find myself trying to latch onto new ideas, new concepts, new things, but really, my focus already exists - the trick is to focus on where your focus already is.

Controversial opinion - you already have found your thing, you’re just not paying attention to it.

I read a story recently by Pat Walls who went on a think week and came back with the revelation that what he needed to do was focus on the thing he’d been doing, rather than splitting his attention on something else.

Funny - half the time the thing you're chasing is probably right in front of your face - better questions to ask:

• What do you read about every day

• What do you think about every day

• What do you talk about every day

You probably have an 8/10 opportunity sat on your lap, you just didn’t realise it.

Wasting time, getting it wrong, feels like the ultimate sin. So funny, we spend so much time trying to get it right that we waste most of the time in the process.

Instead, pick a skill that feels like the very learning of it is productive.

And if you’re unsure, ask yourself the reasoned regret question:

Will you regret learning this skill?

If the answer is no, go for it. You’ll perhaps never regret learning to write ideas clearly - even if AI does that in the future - your ability to think clearly is important.

The optimised way to learn is through production, to create so that you can iterate. You can’t iterate, or it’s harder to iterate on something that doesn’t exist - of course, you can iterate thoughts, but it’s harder in your mind.

Create a rule - one thing a day, not for anybody else, not to get rich or famous. Just to learn. One thing a day.

Some days, you will inevitably question everything.

On these days, it’s important to disconnect, to focus on production, and to reduce consumption.

For these days, I stay off social media, I double my dose of sunlight, and accept that my ambitions might not happen today - and that’s fine.