The Pilot, The Plane & The Engineer
As I’m churning out content, I’ve been overly conscious of the overarching theme or direction I’m headed towards because I really want to be intentional about things.
Am I even heading in the right direction? How do I cover all the topics I’m interested in (Productivity, Health/ Fitness, Life Stuff) to share it with everyone in a way that makes sense? I don’t want folks to be ‘bored’ with the range of topics, especially since the intent is to add value to their lives with these insights. It’s been particularly difficult to find that balance!
I was reminded of an analogy of ‘The Pilot, The Plane & The Engineer’ from my favourite podcast - Not Overthinking by Ali & Taimur Abdaal (who are actually brothers!) Throughout the day / span of the project, you spend time in different roles:
As the Pilot, you spend perhaps 10% of your time finding clarity and direction.
As the Plane, you spend 85% of your time executing these plans.
As the Engineer, 5% of the time is spent improving and refining the processes to make things more efficient.
I’ve probably spent a long time as a ‘Pilot’, trying to figure out my direction in life (thank you quarter life crisis?) - but I’m now mostly in ‘Plane mode’ as I’ve been consistently dishing out content on a daily / weekly basis. Of course, as I put out more content, I learn new things, and make incremental improvements to them . Even in ‘Engineer mode’, working on the backend stuff (like building my website, making my email lists seamless) does take quite a fair bit of effort, but once done, it makes things SO much easier to do!
I try to remind myself now, that I can definitely afford to go into ‘Pilot mode’ once in awhile to check if I’m headed in the right direction. After all, even if things do work in auto-pilot mode, it’s still the Pilot’s job to make sure that we are headed in the right direction. Imagine, if you go off course by just 5 degrees, and the mistake is not corrected in a short time - you’ll end up at a completely different place from your original destination!
So I tell myself, that it’s okay to tweak and pivot my course as I move forward with my works! I just have to be conscious of it, and things will turn out fine :)
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Related Blog Post: ‘Level Up Your life’ - A Nerd’s View On The Guide To Life’
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