Writing success made simple: go binary
For me, and I suspect for most writers, a ‘successful day’ boils down to one single thing. It’s the thing that makes up for any other shortcomings in my day. If it’s the only thing I get accomplished the entire day, I can still lay my head on the pillow at night and sleep soundly knowing that I did the number one most important thing: I wrote.
Simple as that.
Yes, it’s a low bar.
And yet…
There are many nights where my head hits the pillow and that one thing isn’t done. I haven’t written.
I hate that. I would like it to happen less. In fact, I would prefer it to happen not at all.
And I heard a piece of advice from former Navy SEAL and all-around badass, Jocko Willink that I think can help me accomplish that. Jocko recommends getting radically simple when it comes to success:
“Machines make their decisions based on ones and zeros. Binary code. Yes or no. And that’s actually a good system for your to implement for your own, personal human machine. It’s actually not that complicated. Are you going to work out today? Yes or no? Are you going to eat the doughnut? Yes or no? Are you going to win? Yes or no? Don’t allow for any gray area in there. Get rid of the debate. Make the binary code decision: yes or no? And you know the right decision to make, so go and make it.”
So with that in mind, I guess there’s only one question to ask:
Am I ever going to let my head hit the pillow again without having written that day?
Answer: No.
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