#16 - The Long Game
When we start any endeavor, we think about things in the short term.
This session. This game. This quarter. This year.
We’re getting dopamine hits from the novelty and excitement of rapid growth.
Over time, that constant feedback lessens as we head into the long middle.
We need different strategies to shift gears and play the long game.
The key is to ask better questions.
How will I remember this time when look back in 10 years?
What resources am I burning now that will bite me in the ass in 5 years?
(At a future time) I achieved my goal yesterday, what do I want to do today?
We can’t predict the future, but we can attend to the feedback of pain from our body.
I’m sorting through this process in my Jiu Jitsu training now.
Two weeks ago I had two shoulder subluxations - a worst fear of mine after dealing with dozens of subluxations/dislocations over the last decade.
I’d made it through 80 sessions of BJJ in the last year injury free and was doing well.
After the first one I wanted to downplay the instability in the shoulder, keep the momentum, and make it one class at a time.
I survived class 82 but at the end of class 83 had another incident.
I hate quitting. I hate backing out of commitments. I hate dialing back intensity.
It feels like failure. It feels like I’m opening space for uncertainty to fill the void that was once occupied by plans and objectives.
(Also, I get that letting go of this illusion of control is likely the meta-lesson to learn.)
But I realize that if I want to play the long game, if I want to be doing BJJ for 10, 20, and 30 years, I have to play smarter and reframe from a bigger perspective.
I am learning that there is a difference between quitting and redirecting.
An analogy - Let’s say you have a certain quota of “energy” units to expend each day.
You can direct those to any pursuit, but they don’t rollover if unused.
Quitting is withdrawing “energy” units that had previously been purposed toward some outlet and letting them expire.
Redirecting is updating your focus toward a problem that is undermining the long term stability of your bigger pursuits and choosing to spend your “energy” there.
When faced with a pain of any sort, you have a choice.
You can quit.
You can play the short game - Ignore things. Break things. Then be forced to quit.
You can play the long game - Redirect efforts. Fix the problem. Come back better.
All things come to an end. The point of most games is to keep playing them.
The sooner you address pains, the more optionality you have in how you do it.
(P.S. I’m going back to the basics that I’d gotten slack on to address my shoulder. If you’ve got a bum shoulder and want help with fixing it, this is what I’ll be doing.)