- The Digital Heirloom
- Posts
- Three spheres of expanding influence
It’s been over 800 days since I started this whole writing endeavor…
Most people don’t make it past the first 10 days. Of those that do, even fewer make it to the 100th day.
I’m planning on making it to the 1000th.
Imagine what things will be like on the 10,000th.
They say that you need at least that amount of hours in dedicated and intentional practice to be a master at any discipline (yes, it’s a ball park number), but there’s something to be said about how few people reach that point. In theory, if you dedicate just an hour a day to anything, you can get pretty far along and cover the vast majority of what can be experienced in that field.
Here’s another way to look at these numbers:
10 days is just under 2 weeks
100 days is just under 3 months
1000 days is just under 3 years
10000 days is nearly 3 decades
From looking around at the people who are now visible across writing platforms, they’ve all been at it for at least 3 years.
That should tell you something.
Here’s how I see each of these milestones in terms of influence.
10 days = Know the path
It doesn’t take a whole lot to get started.
You just need your curiosity and some good solid chunks of time and focus. There is absolutely no excuse to not give anything you have an interest in at least this much time. Knowing when to quit can save you a huge amount of time and effort. Stopping something in the limbo stage can do a number on your confidence.
Between AI and normal internet search, you can get started with any endeavor (or at least have enough information to make an educated guess).
The best part about this phase is that it’s something that easily be juggled into your daily routine. It’s a trial run. There’s no cost upfront outside of time and maybe a small investment for a started kit or a lesson or two. Nobody notices that you’re dabbling so there’s no pressure from the outside and no visibility. We’re human. We all have multiple interests, and if we’re resourceful and internet-savvy, anything is possible.
Beyond this point, things get a little more serious.
100 days = Walk the path
If you find yourself still curious beyond that first sphere, then you’re on to something.
This is where curiosity starts to become obsession as you dedicate more time to the craft. You start to invest in more materials, more time, another mini-course or two, and you start reaching out to others in the local community.
Your presence starts being felt.
This is the stage where 99% of people dwell and become dilettantes, advanced beginners who execute regularly but stop growing because it either becomes too expensive in time or money. It’s actually what limbo looks like for most who end up in the cul-de-sac as described in “The Dip” by Seth Godin.
It’s a very painful section of the process because everything starts to feel flat.
You’re still progressing steadily, but the farther out you go in this stage, tinkering, learning, and contributing, the less confidence you will feel at various stages. You’re a regular face on the scene. The highs and lows get more intense, and the valleys of frustration can threaten to chew you up and spit you out.
I’ve watched a lot of people go through this part in the past few years on TwiX and Medium.
This is the part of the phrase “nothing happens…”
“…then everything happens.”
Since I’m not at this stage for writing, I can only share with you the other skills where I reached this stage: music, dance, and academia.
I didn’t start winning piano competitions until after the first three years of practicing and learning for about an hour or so a day.
I didn’t start enjoying the benefits of swing dancing until after the third year when women would start to ask for the next dance with me.
I didn’t feel like I had a handle on my graduate career until after I finished my Masters degree in my third year and went on to complete my PhD.
You struggle and toil in darkness, but there are people taking notice and helping you forward. Your name is know in wider circles beyond those who started following you when you were small fry. You have more confidence in your skill set, and the basics are something that you can pass along to those who are in the previous stage.
At this point, you start teaching others and sharing stories about what worked for you to get here and what you would have done differently if you had known.
Here’s the funny part about that last statement:
If you had known what you know now, how would you have known it to the extent that you do? You would’ve had to go through the process to know it the way you know it now.
Read that again.
Everyone writes these articles with the same powerful hook, but people ignore the truth about this process. You MUST go through the experience. Everyone loves a good story, but it’s the inconvenient truth. You can read a million of these articles, but you still have to walk the journey yourself.
Sharing your path at this stage is more to reassure those who are behind you that it’s worth it and to help them anticipate what’s to come.
This is the stage where there’s potential to make something into a living.
The final stage is one very few reach.
It isn’t about money or learning or teaching at this point.
It just is.
At this point, whatever you are doing is now integrated into your lifestyle. It permeates everything you do and every movement you make. You may not be 100% aware of it, but it’s a part of you that you don’t even need to consciously make any effort to practice.
It’s a way of life.
Martial arts is this for me. It’s the only discipline that I’ve been doing for over three decades, and I started when I was five. It’s not entirely fair to say that I’ve done it for that long consistently, though, as I moved from Karate to Tae Kwon Do to Tai Chi throughout my life. Each style taught me a different facet of martial arts, and I’m no fighter to be sure. I’ve picked up the mindset and the self-discipline, and the total amount of hours I dedicated to it is well over 10,000.
Now that my master passed last September, this is an area of my life where I feel a void for the first time.
I’ve taught several students throughout my life for a buck here and there, but only to get them to feel like they had “skin in the game”. It’s something that I like to incorporate into my writing every once in a while. Perhaps I’ll talk more about it in the future.
Where are you?
I see mastery, internalization, and mentorship using these metrics.
The digital heirloom is meant to give these things a framework from which to pass on to others for easier consumption. The more I write about these aspects of life, the more I understand that it’s all in how passionate you are about what you choose to leave behind.
Most of my skills are actually in the second stage these days.
Try this:
list out all the skills and interests that you’ve encountered in your life
bin them into each of these four categories
reflect on how each influences others
A few of these have the potential to become the core of your own digital heirloom.
It’s there for you when you’re ready.
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