We can spend five, six, seven months answering emails at 2:00 PM without ever asking: “Is this getting us to where we really want to be?” The dopamine of task completion (“got it done, got it done, got it done”) creates a tunnel that obscures the larger question of direction.
Joe compares it to hiking with a map: you spend most of your time looking at the trail in front of you, but every once in a while you have to stop, pull out the map, and check — “Am I going where I want to go? Is this path leading me there?”
He gives the example of his own video production: sometimes they’re in execution mode, checking off videos. But periodically they pull back: “Is this how we want to shoot a video? Is this us? Is this something that we enjoy?” This constant iteration on direction — not just execution — is what produces evolution over time.
“Every once in a while, you got to stop, pull up. Is this getting me to where I want to go?”
The 14-day experiment: each day, practice one of the three strategies (plant a seed, find leverage, take the 30,000-foot view) and notice what shifts.
Related Concepts
- Find the one thing that makes everything else easier or irrelevant
- Think like a farmer — plant seeds for the future
- We are always running experiments