Rebooting Your Brain

CHAPTER 13Myth: There Is Always a Shortcut

Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.

—Sir Winston Churchill

There is one crossroad you will come on every day. It's a subtle intersection point that, unless you are aware enough, you might miss it, walk right by, and not even notice that it's there. Yet this one point, this one transition will profoundly shape the happiness and satisfaction you find in life.

Will you succeed or suffer? Will you endeavor or simply exist? The answer to both questions lies in what you do when you reach this crossroad.

In every action that you take and in every decision you make, this crossroad will present itself. It comes into view when you must make a choice about how much effort and energy you want to expend. Do you want to just get something done as quickly as you can, with as little thought and commitment necessary? Or do you want to put forth your very best effort, strategically allocating your time and decision‐making to drive toward the optimal outcome possible?

Do you want to do the minimum required or the maximum possible?

These are two distinctly different perspectives. One of them, over time, will consistently yield optimal results, whereas the other, in most cases, will lead to mediocrity.

Now, why is this true? For the simple reason that life is a marathon, not a sprint. As such, our ultimate successes or struggles will frequently come down to the positive or negative momentum we build through ...