Welcome to The Slog

[00:00:00] **Aurooba Ahmed:** Well, hello. This is The Daily Five with Aurooba, that's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go.

[00:00:16] If you're listening to this around the time of its release, it is the end of January, 2024. Some of that New Year glow is fading, regular life is settling in. And if you want your habits to stick, you're gonna have to get through this next little bit, the slog. Honestly, this whole time that I've been doing this season, I've been thinking about what I want to make this chapter of the season be about.

[00:00:47] What can I say about the middle? I could argue that we are always in the middle of something, but One, it's obvious, and two, it's unhelpful. So here's what I'll say instead. Sometimes you have to go wide, and other times you have to go deep. What direction you choose will depend on what you're trying to do. Both are valid ways to approach things.

[00:01:14] What does it mean to go wide? It means expanding your focus, taking what is adjacent into account. In work lingo, that is what generalists do. They know a little bit about everything, and they put it together to come up with new ideas and insights.

[00:01:30] What does it mean to go deep? It means focusing on one thing very deeply, figuring out everything you can about it. Because whatever it may be, there's always more to learn and more to know. In work lingo, that is what specialists do. They know a lot about a few things, and it lets them see patterns and insights that come with experience. Often hard won. That's something that Cal Newport talks a lot about, being a specialist.

[00:02:04] But I think there's a middle ground. And I don't mean that in a cop out kind of way. In my mind, it looks like a wave. An ebb and a flow. You can focus on something for a while, go kind of deep, and then move on to something else. You go wide and deep. Maybe not as wide as a generalist might, and not as deep as a specialist would, but something that might be the best of both worlds.

[00:02:33] But when you are in the middle of something, you have to decide what the right approach is here. What will you do to keep your interest high? Going wide by exploring adjacent things that can help you see things from a different perspective? Or going deep and working out the magic behind the thing. Which is always fun, you know, when you see something weird that you don't understand and then you finally figure out how it works and it's like, whoa, that is cool.

[00:03:04] When I think of the slog, I think of fasting. Muslims around the world fast for about 30 days from dawn to sunset every day. It's either really hard or really easy at first. Hard, maybe because you aren't used to it. Easy, because you have a lot more stamina in the beginning. But by around day 13 or 14, you've hit that middle part of the month, your body hasn't quite adjusted yet, and you feel like you're kind of waning. But that is when you double down.

[00:03:36] You eat a different kind of breakfast, or you plan elaborate fast breaking meals, or you go deep into meditation, anything to help you get through. And by about day 17, at least for me, inevitably I'll have reached a state of Something. Not zen, exactly, but your body is adjusted, you are conserving energy in the right way, and your mind feels blindingly clear.

[00:04:04] But to get there, you have to go through the slog, which is tough, and you have to find a way to make it interesting for yourself. Sometimes, yes, you have to grit your teeth, walk away from any possible smell of food, and hide the water bottles in your house, whatever it takes to get through it. It's easier to do it now, because I've done it before, and because I know what is waiting at the end of the slog, clarity and lightness.

[00:04:28] And I should hope that whatever it is you're trying to do, there is something you want at the end of it. So that's what you have to remember, as the going gets tough. Because it will inevitably get tough. So, welcome to the slog, y'all. We'll explore this for the next few days. Let's roll.

[00:04:54] Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?