What’s the fastest way to fail at something you could absolutely do well? Start by doing the work… before you decide what the work is. Most “hard problems” are just poorly framed problems wearing a costume. Your mind grabs the first handle it sees (distance, steps, details)… and then it commits. That commitment is expensive. Because the same situation can often be represented two ways, and one representation turns hours into seconds. The trick isn’t genius. It’s renaming. Ask: is this a distance problem or a time problem? A knowledge problem or a workflow problem? A motivation problem or a friction problem? If you keep pushing inside the wrong frame, effort becomes proof… that the frame is wrong. Don’t worship persistence. Use it strategically. Before you start the next task, write two alternative framings that would make the solution simpler. Then choose the one that makes a next step obvious.
