“Our best work emerges during periods of high productivity.”
Have you ever heard the phrase “quality over quantity?” – the implication being that we should focus on the quality of the task.
- That one good painting or drawing outweighs multiple paintings or drawings that are done in less time with less precision
- On the surface that makes sense, but many times we work so hard to be precise when in reality, we could have completed four different projects in the same amount of time.
- The numbers seem to point to the conclusion that if we’d done that, we would be better off by the fourth project than sticking to one and revising it a million times.
When getting more shots on net, at some point the law of averages comes into effect.
- The more times you put yourself out there, the better the chance you’ll stumble upon something incredible.
- The more swings you take the better your odds for hitting the long ball.
- That’s not even the best part. The upside is that the more swings you take, the quicker you develop, and the more powerful you become.
- Every time you connect, you become a better hitter.
“The only way you’re going to have success is to have lots of failures”
- The idea is getting the less optimal stuff out of the way
It is through high productivity that our relationship with the pursuit is transformed.
- We learn about our process as much as we learn about ourselves, and it becomes more clear that waiting for the perfect moment, or exhausting all energy on that perfect shot will ultimately leave us short of the goal.
True mastery comes from putting the outcome aside and immersing yourself in a process that will little by little create that elusive quality that otherwise would have never been obtained.
Re-source: Repetition
the recurrence of an action, event, performance, production, or presentation : the act or an instance of repeating
A study a photography professor at the university of Florida divided his photography students into two groups (the left side of the room and the right side of the room).
- The left side of the room would be the quantity group which means they’d be graded on the number of photos they took.
- so 100 photos would be an “A,” 90 would be a “B” so on and so on
- The right side of the room would be the quality group where they would be graded on how good their work was.
- but they only had to produce one photo in the semester
- it pretty much had to be an immaculate picture
At the end of the term the professor was surprised to find that the left side quantity group, the group that produced over and over again, had far better pictures than the right side that only had to produce one.
- Through that process they honed their craft, gathered skills, and became better photographers.
This study shows that the way to quality is through quantity
- Success takes repetition
craving and resource from Your World Within – “Breaking Through Mediocrity” (Quality vs Quantity)