Start with Simple but Hard Activities

Every moment, we’re doing something or the other. There are some activities that we enjoy, some we’re good at, some lead to awesome payoffs for us.

The outcomes we’re chasing depend on these activities. So naturally, we’re all trying to choose the activities in our days and to meaningfully engage with them.

This mental model offers a simple yet effective way of looking at them.

Here goes

We can place all the activities that we do on a simple 2-D chart.

The first axis is the difficulty axis going from easy to hard.

The second axis is the complexity axis going from simple to complex.

These lines, when placed together give us a 2x2 matrix having 4 quadrants. Our perception of the activities and the way we engage with them is similar for all activities in one quadrant. Naturally, both of them differ across the quadrants.

What are these quadrants?

Let’s give these quadrants names - ‘The Feel-Good Zone’, ‘The Grind’, ‘The Black Hole’, and ‘The Mastery Zone’.

Simple and easy activities fall in the ‘The Feel-Good Zone’ quadrant. You’re good at all these activities, but so are countless others like you. Maybe they get you money, but only a little. Maybe they contribute to some outcomes, but only in a small capacity. You probably enjoy all these activities to varying degrees. A lot of the simpler pleasures lie here.

‘The Mastery Zone’ is where legends in their fields operate. The activities are very complex at the level at which the legends operate but are easy for them. The legends enjoy these activities. They’re seeking incredible outcomes and getting them - whether monetary or otherwise.

‘The Grind’ is what we hate. The activities in ‘The Grind’ don’t excite you intellectually. They’re pretty straightforward. You think you can do it in your sleep. BUT YOU JUST CAN’T. (Have you ever tried and failed at meditating? How hard can inhaling and exhaling without thinking about anything be?)

‘The Black Hole’ is where activities come to disappear. They’re already hard enough. Add to that the need to figure out and balance a thousand moving parts and you’re giving up already. Or worse, over-simplifying and making terrible mistakes. You’re sane enough not to repeat this and so the next time you don’t pursue the activity altogether. There are only a very few activities that pass through ‘The Black Hole’ because your passion made it possible.

Activity Arcs

All activities can be placed somewhere on this chart at a point in time. With the passage of time, they move throughout the chart in various arcs.

Let me illustrate the movements with a few examples.

1. Sleeping - This is a simple and easy activity which stays simple and easy. Zzz Zzz.
   

2. Playing the guitar <insert instrument> - This is an interesting movement. It starts out complex and hard. You can’t play one note properly and it’s already time to move to another note… Which is where exactly? Your friend who has a week’s practice more than you is significantly better but you just can’t see how. Well, that’s how. With consistent practice of the same notes, it becomes easier for you. You can see yourself improving a lot and in no time you can play basic patterns and songs. You quickly move from ‘The Black Hole’ to ‘The Grind’ to ‘The Feel-Good Zone!’. Then, you start learning complex patterns, start composing music yourself, and slowly and eventually move up in ‘The Mastery Zone’. Alas, a lot of us don’t cross The Black Hole at the start.
   

3. Playing cricket <insert sport> - This starts as a simple and easy activity. After all, you’re the Virat Kohli of your neighborhood. Then you level up, you start playing outside your neighborhood and it becomes harder to compete. You work hard on your fundamentals, you keep upskilling yourself and slowly you move out of ‘The Grind’ into ‘The Black Hole’ and eventually into ‘The Mastery Zone’. That is if your passion and practice sustain over time.
   

4. Running <insert fitness activity> - You step into The Grind and stay in The Grind. You’re tempted at all points to let this activity move into ‘The Feel-Good Zone!’. But no. You keep on finding a longer distance to chase, a faster speed to run at. This progressive overload in itself is a grind.
   

5. Investing - This movement begins in The Black Hole and for successful people, it ends up in The Mastery Zone. The trajectory however depends on the choices we make, the habits we follow, and the lessons we learn. We react differently to each episode and that impacts the trajectory of this movement on the chart.
   

With consistent habits, activities move leftward on the chart - becoming easier by the day.

With newer knowledge, the activities can get elevated on the complexity axis. You do know more. You can choose whether to use that knowledge and embrace the complexity or not. Upto you.

Case for starting with The Grind

For whatever outcome that we’re chasing, it makes sense to identify the simple but hard activities in them and start acting on them consistently. Maybe even going as far as designing our habits, our organizational practices, and our lifestyles around these activities.

This works for a number of reasons:

1. It gets you moving. You quickly realize that even simple steps can help you cover a lot of ground. You move 80% of the way towards your outcomes along the pareto principle after which you can decide to spend time and effort to move further up along the complexity axis and unravel the secrets of the legends.

2. You avoid getting lost in The Black Hole. You’re not overwhelmed. You retain a sense of possibility which gives you hope.

3. You discover the limits of your passion. Are you passionate about the outcome enough to sustain The Grind and still consider skirting The Black Hole to get into The Mastery Zone?

4. It helps you build habits. Habits that help you move leftward on the chart. Habits that then allow you to sustain the activity for compounding to play a part.

Simple but hard activities contain ingredients for transformational outcomes.

So, what is the outcome you’re chasing and what are simple but hard activities that you can start with?