Nothing we do is on an island; context matters
Research takes a long time.
It’s tedious. Sometimes, it leaves you disconnected. When you tell other people you’re studying, they assume it’s for a homework assignment or school.
That isn’t it. Those reasons are cold and static.
You do research because you want to get closer to “your flame.”
Some people contextualize your “flame” as passion, purpose, mission, etc. It’s what drives you to do the work that no one asked you to do.
Like all things in nature, it’s complex. Getting to the “flame” is hard to tackle. It’s hard to understand.
However, that’s self-awareness, and it’s one of the tenets for leadership. (sign up for my newsletter :-])
One of the tricks of self-awareness is some of the characteristics exist outside yourself. Context matters. It is part of that path to get to your flame.
One of the heuristics I use to understand how important context, which helps you determine the flame:
- Amateurs get the picture – A snapshot in time that they can bend to whatever memory they have
- Pros get the video – harder to manipulate than a picture, shows you much more
- Masters get the entire tape – No hiding from the context here. That’s the key. The flame lies in the context
Is studying the tape time-intensive – yes! That’s why “no” is important.
This college football dynasty spends all its time on the tape. They make the College Football Playoffs (that’s the best four teams out of 108) every year.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 