Principle of Achievement

It all boils down to two things [29]:

These days I think a lot about achievements, post college when none of that is clearly defined. I think a lot about capitalism, how it alters the way I view the world, who I am as a person and what does it mean to be of worth in the current capitalistic society I live in.

I am not an advocate for constant hustling, even though I myself couldn’t get out of that circle sometimes. But I am an advocate for self improvement, unbounded curiosity and learning. Sometimes we learn for fun and sometimes we learn with the intention of achieving something definite - a recent topic covered by fellow writer Tung Akwaaba (it’s in Vietnamese, but feel free to message me for a rough translation!)

I have been sitting on this rule behind attaining ‘success’ the past week, trying to understand what consists of a good process to make mastery happen. I consolidate it to two elements:

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I) CONSISTENCY

I drew this conclusion mainly from my personal experiences, the different self-help books and sources that I have collected knowledge from throughout the years. If you are familiar with James Clear’s work, you would know about the principle of being 1% better everyday. The main idea is this:

If you get one percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.

Illustration from JamesClear.com

Since I’m a woman, I’m going to solemnly make my best attempt to not only quote white, male, straight figures and put everything they promote on a pedestal. For a woman, there are many elements that can affect our lives and stifle our progress in achieving anything and everything. I want to say here that I acknowledge it, you might have a family to take care of, inherent expectations to be caring towards the people around you, your partner, or at work that is draining and time-consuming. I’m here for you.

The idea, extends to what I recently learned on showing up is this: Showing up every day is the key and varied degree of efforts are acceptable, as long as you are showing up. With many obligations, it’s not realistic to show up 100% everyday but each of us can make at least a minor attempt - keep the momentum going.

Photo by @saraharnoldhall on IG

I watched a video earlier this year that stuck in my head. The person who created it, Reneau explained this old as time concept of “How to believe in yourself”. Essentially, in order to believe in yourself, you need to build up the confidence and the trust you have for your own self, that you will be reliable and keep the word on goals you say you will deliver.

A good quote to take away is:

If you can’t rise to the small things you said you would do, how can you believe in yourself with bigger things?

Thank you for supporting my publication - this is not the end of the piece but a friendly reminder to subscribe if you have not yet already. I’d love it for you to follow along. You can put your email down below or put it in the comment section to be added to the list.

II. NOT LEARNING IN A VACUUM

If you have taken a programming or a business class, or any class at all, you would be familiar with the concept of collaborative learning.

You are assigned with a group to complete a business plan, code, or run an experiment together. Collaborative learning works because you see how others approach a problem and have access to diversity in thought. Learning with others also help with knowledge retention and increase general accountability when there is a collective interest at stake.

Cognitive Load Theory specifies that humans’ brains have capacity limits where we can max out the brain’s ability. When we do, it’s difficult to continue processing complex information. Working and learning in groups help spread that challenge across teams and people, decreasing the learning load your brain has to independently handle. Pretty neat right?

Voicing my commitment to friends and family has also been helpful, another form of manifestation. From the get go with this newsletter, I shamelessly reached out to 30 friends and family members. I asked them to subscribe to this barebone publication, a space where I had little to no content and them having elusive assurance that I would continue to deliver on my promise. That strategy works because 25 weeks later, I am still here, writing.

Learning in a group, learning in sharing, learning in public (as in documenting your journey for the public/your social network to follow) are all valuable for one more reason - receiving feedback. From this UT Arlington research on motivation, feedback and clear goal setting significantly improve attention and motivation. Having feedback only without goal setting at the end of the task also boasts impressive effect on sustaining motivation.

For me personally, I have been learning about product management. One way I have maintained progress is to constantly bug my friends about any and every little milestone. I sent one of my PM friends a photo of my first ever Figma mock-up yesterday because I was so excited for that little win. I joined Discord and Slack groups and made myself share even the most minor concerns or questions to keep myself coming back to those spaces. I subscribed to (I lost count over how many) Product newsletters and devoured them like nobody’s business. Engaging with others keeps what I’m learning top of mind, and makes the work more exciting.

FINAL WORDS

Most of the time, we see final results of months and years of people putting in the work, from a photo snapshot, tiktok or Youtube video. What is not shown are the sweats, tears and frustration that they all face before they get to where they are. Everyone likes to talk about their achievements, no one likes to talk about the process as much.

Therefore, I want to use this space as an emphasis for the need to be consistent. You might be mediocre or a rookie in a field today, tomorrow or even five months from now, but keep showing up, you are doing great.

Let me know what your experiences are with building something up from ground zero - could be a skill, a habit, art project, anything. What have helped you stick with the process and what are the challenges? I’d love to know :) I am also putting mind in the comment section if you want to check it out.