Many ambitions require periods of soil-tilling and seed-planting if we want to make them a reality.
Consistent habits can help us realize outcomes that outweigh the total aggregated inputs: our small, daily efforts transmogrify into more than the sum of their components so that 1 + 1 = 3 (or 4, or 5).
In some cases, though, the goal and the practices that help us pursue that goal may be very different in shape, focus, and function.
Learning about business fundamentals, for instance, may require a different type of effort and mindset than is optimal when running a bakery.
There are components that translate from one to the other, but hitting the books to acquire a basic knowledge of assets, expenses, and tax-law is distinct enough from the day-to-day requirements of producing sellable baked goods, hiring the right staff, dealing with customers, and figuring out (and performing) an appropriate social media strategy that they may as well be entirely disconnected undertakings.
Similarly, a daily exercise regimen can hone the muscles, balance, and flexibility we utilize while playing sports, but they don’t train us for the sport itself. Having bulkier biceps won’t make us better badminton players any more than running fast will help us shoot baskets.
Our philosophical and psychological ambitions, and the paths we tread to achieve them, tend to have the same dynamic.
Most minimalists I know don’t spend all their time thinking about minimalism: once you’ve familiarized yourself with the concept, applied it to your life, and worked those learnings into your habits, there’s little point to rehashing the same ideas ad infinitum.
The goal is typically to use minimalism as a tool that helps us get from one place to another, in thinking and in practice.
Orienting one’s life around this concept, then (unless you’re attempting to reframe, rework, or communicate the philosophy itself in a novel way), is a bit like trying to get really good at doing pushups and redefining oneself as a pushup-enthusiast: there’s maybe some kind of value in the kind of recalibration, but more typically it’s an exercise meant to help you get better at other things, not an end unto itself.
Thinking about these processes as journeys rather than destinations can help, but it’s also useful, in my experience, to maintain a focus on our intended outcomes even as we intentionally and purposefully traverse the path leading toward them.
Tilling that soil and planting those seeds can be meditative and enjoyable activities unto themselves, but unless the habit alone is what you’re aiming for, it’s prudent to maintain a solid sense of the larger context of which those interstitial labors are just one component.
Do the best pushups you can do, and strive to get better at them over time so that they’re more likely to help you achieve your ambitions. But don’t forget that these habits are meant to help us evolve from one version of ourselves into another, currently aspirational iteration.
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