If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well

“If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well”

In high school, I was proud to do well without having to do much work. I would brag about how little I’d have to study and how well I could BS and still excel. Effort was anathema to me; I wanted people to know that I was not only smart, but that I wasn’t even trying hard while doing it.

The Shift from Laziness to CommitmentPermalink

The Value of Focus and InvestmentPermalink

Now, a decade later, I’ve learned that that’s really stupid. Anything worth doing takes time and investment and energy. A lot of success in early adulthood involves picking individual avenues and doing those well while also being able to shut out distractions. It’s not about accumulating job offers, it’s about getting the one right one. It’s not about having hundreds of friends online, it’s about having someone you enjoy spending time with on a Saturday afternoon. It’s not about having a long list of women chasing after you (as much as pickup artists and “alpha males” would have you believe) as much as it is finding that one right partner to come home to.

The Rarity of True CommitmentPermalink

For all of these, though, I think it’s much more common for people to half-commit and do them lazily instead of following through. It’s hard for people to see anything to completion, which is why there’s pride in completing a college degree, transforming your body’s appearance at the gym, or winning an award. It’s so rare, though, for people to persevere on one thing for any extended period of time; we’d rather numb ourselves with daily distractions and chase whatever fleeting shiny object catches our attention or just accept the belief that “oh I’m too busy, I could never”. Being “too busy” is a common excuse for people to half-ass their commitments, but I think that’s silly. There’s no pride in being too “busy” to do the things that actually matter. After all, on your deathbed there’s no achievement unlocked that says “wow they maxed out the number of hours they spent at work”. People spend too much time trying to chase a bunch of possibly shiny objects, when the key is to focus and pick the 2-3 things that are actually important, and do those things and those things only.

The Core PhilosophyPermalink

That leads me to my key idea:

If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well.

Education and CommitmentPermalink

Theres a general trend in American society that’s anti-education and anti-school, driven by people saying “I’m street-smart, not book-smart”, and “I didn’t end up using my college degree, so college is a waste of time”. To the first, I say “OK, but what IF you were street-smart AND book-smart?”. To the “college is a waste of time” claim, I say if you go to the gym and you lift weights without a workout plan, of course you’re not going to know if it was worth it or not, so why would you go to college without a plan and expect to feel like you got something out of it? A lot of logic used for anti-education hate doesn’t make sense when you replace “college” with “the gym”: if you don’t focus and have a goal in mind at the gym, of course you’re not going to get results, just like if you go through the motions, don’t eat or get rest, and aren’t consistent with your workouts, of course you won’t see gains. If you’re spending your hour at the gym texting people and recording videos on Snapchat instead of lifting weights, of course you’re going to look back and say “wow I didn’t get anything out of the times I went to the gym”. School is the same way: if you spend all your time texting and talking to friends instead of learning the material, of course you won’t learn anything. If you don’t have a specific plan for your education and what you want to get out of it, of course it’s easy to fumble around and not end up making the most of it. School is required from kindergarten to 12th grade, so if you’re going to receive a mandatory education for 13 years, you might as well do it well. Can you imagine going to the gym for 13 years and not having any muscle to show for it? Not all schools are created equal and not all teachers are good (just like not all gyms are good and not all trainers know what they’re talking about), but if you’re going to have to show up to something for that long, at least get something out of it.

Applying the Philosophy BroadlyPermalink

If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well. This paradigm can also be applied more broadly. If you’re on vacation, you might as well enjoy it, since you’re already there. If you’re going to be at an art museum, you might as well be genuinely interested in the art and want to learn more. If you’re going to try a new restaurant, you might as well be open-minded and savor the experience. If you’re going to date, you might as well be upfront with your intentions instead of playing this hedged “casual but open to long-term” game popular with online dating. Sure, perhaps not all these things are “important” in the grand scheme of things, but being the kind of person who does things and does them well in general makes it much easier to be the kind of person who can do so when it matters. Having the “all-in” personality when you’re spending time with family or perusing a book cafe makes it easier to be “all-in” when it comes to health or relationships or career.

ConclusionPermalink

Of course, apply within reason and with other constraints. But I think that it’s more generally the case that people undercommit than overcommit; after all, if people overcommitted in various aspects of their life, there would be smart doctors, fit bodybuilders, and much more social friend groups everywhere.

This is one of the mindset shifts that’s been most transformative in my life. I generally think life is simple and execution is difficult, but we also make it harder than it needs to be. I found that as I’ve matured, wisdom has come not from accumulating more facts and knowledge and beliefs, but from tearing down and removing previously limiting mindsets and adopting simpler frameworks that inform everything else I do.