Achieving anything we care about takes effort.
All else being equal, bigger ambitions take more effort to bring to completion than smaller ones.
But here’s the thing:
It’s not just new pursuits which need to be managed, progressed, and pushed forward with an investment of personal effort.
Doing things exactly as we’re doing them today takes plenty of energy too. Oftentimes, more than we realise…
And not just because we’re striving for something challenging.
Sometimes, it’s because there are hidden leaks in the system. Friction points or invisible inefficiencies that create waste.
The end result is that we end up paying a far higher price for our progress (or even just maintaining what we have) than we know.
Wherever we are & whatever we want to do, reaching the destinations we’ve set our sights on requires two things:
- Invest sufficient time, energy, money, focus and other resources are required to attain the ends of our desire.
- Ensure those invested resources are put to work as efficiently as possible – minimal wastage, and minimum allocation to low-leverage activities.
The analogy of a leaky bucket comes to mind.
A bucket with zero leaks, given enough time, will fill to the brim with even the slightest trickle feeding into it.
A bucket that’s riddled with gaps needs more and more inflow to balance the amount that’s pouring through cracks in the container.
If we’re not getting where want to go as fast as we’d like, we can try to increase flow.
We can put more time in, spend more money on it, and just white-knuckle our way towards the finish line.
Sometimes, that’s what you need to do. It’s not always feasible to eliminate every leak. If waste is an inherent reality of the system, then there’s a minimum level of input required to exceed that threshold and ensure you’re making progress.
But if you’ve got obvious leaks you’re ignoring, then you’re making things harder than they need to be.
The more we put into any pursuit, the more potential we have to reach our goals faster and accumulate progress towards the things we care about.
The more we lose to inefficient design or poor allocation of that effort, the more we limit our potential.
If we could do better at our current level of investment – if we could get more without doing anything new – why not do it?
Effort adds. Attrition subtracts. Both compound.
Given enough time, the results produced by the system multiply to either deliver ever-increasing returns… or exponentially reduce the upside we could experience.
Patching the leaks isn’t enough by itself: you still need inflow to make progress.
But that progress is faster & easier when you’re working with a system that’s not actively sabotaging you.