Stop Chasing Instant Proof
Why I doubled down on yard work instead of writing
There’s a garden bed on the far side of our garage that’s been neglected for years and has run rampant. Especially a monster bramble bush that’s been taunting me every time I go get the car. The other week I had some time to really go to town cutting things back and, while it still needs work, it was immensely gratifying to do.
Effort in. Result out.
It’s the same with woodworking or any home improvement project that I’m able to take on.
But that feedback loop can also be a trap.
The One-to-One Feedback Loop
I’ve entered a season, professionally, of longer plays. Of investing time and effort into this newsletter and you, the reader. Of prioritizing meeting new collaborators and building a foundation of a brand and business that is deep and strong.
But foundations take time to build and they are rarely, if ever, seen.
If you’re like me, then you find it hard at times to wade through long stretches of uncertainty as to whether all the effort you’ve been putting in is actually moving the needle in any meaningful way.
You’re addicted to doing a thing and seeing results.
I call this the One-to-One Feedback Loop.
I experienced this through cinematography work, but didn’t chalk it up to being a “real thing” until very recently.
You do a job. You get paid for it and you have a finished piece of work you can point to and say, “Hey! Look at this! This thing I made…it’s real…and a thing…that I made!”
That whole loop opens and closes fast, relatively speaking. Maybe a few days to a few weeks of effort going in and result coming right back out.
Oh yes, I know it well.
I spent over a decade living that loop over and over again because A) It worked and B) it gave me something that is so hard to find in almost every other facet of a creative career. Immediate proof that the effort you put in mattered.
It’s almost like a drug. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but there’s a reason we keep coming back for more.
It feels good.
Every week I write about creative entrepreneurship, the psychology of why we get stuck, and what it actually looks like to build something new in public. Free.
Radio Silence
If you’re trading time for money in any kind of business right now, you already know this loop intimately. Client hires you to, let’s say, write a month of social content for them. You deliver, get paid, they’re happy and you have rent money plus something to add to the portfolio. Maybe you can add their company logo to your website as social proof of a job well-done.
Now, bump that up against the other kind of work you’re doing, whether it’s a newsletter you’re growing or an audience you’re building. Whatever it is, it’s yours, which is AMAZING, but that doesn’t pay you out on a set schedule. You’re putting in the work, and the only thing you’re getting in return is mostly radio silence with nothing to point back to for that validation you’re desperately seeking.
The good news is, you’re not lazy or lacking in discipline. The real issue is a lot more mechanical. The deep, meaningful work moves slower and operates on a different level than what you’re used to. The faster work in the one-to-one feedback loop is just giving you the fix you’ve gotten used to over time.
It’s like trying to go cold turkey on caffeine after having two cups of coffee every morning for years. You are pretty sure it’s possible, but it’s a problem for “future you.”
Scratch The Right Itch
Telling yourself to just be patient and “trust the process” doesn’t do much when you need to feed the results-driven part of your brain. No matter how you slice it, you’re hooked on “effort = results” and swinging hard the other way takes time.
So the solution is a little bit of replacement therapy. Not quitting the coffee entirely…just switching to decaf.
For me, again, that’s working with my hands building or fixing things around the house. Effort in and result out same day. It lets me feel a sense of accomplishment without derailing my professional efforts and I can go back to playing the long game with some extra gas in the tank.
If you’re in a season of making longer-term bets on yourself and building something of your own, having something in your life that gives you that one-to-one immediacy without sapping your creative or professional energy is what makes this stretch survivable.
Full disclosure, I wasn’t having the best week when I decided to tackle that garden bed. Building something of your own, from scratch, is hard. But that night I went to bed feeling lighter than I had in days because I had scratched the itch of needing results, without getting dragged into a bunch of pointless busy work.
It just has to scratch the right itch and keep you on track, not fix your whole business or situation.
So go find your own bramble bush.
~Drew
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