Success Is Hard Until You Build Systems Like This

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you worked hard and somehow ended up further behind than when you started?

15 min read

Just now

It was a Friday evening. I sat at my desk staring at my to-do list from Monday morning. Not a single important item was crossed off.

The urgent stuff? Done.

The emails, the meetings, the fires that needed putting out? Done.

But the work that actually mattered? The project I’d been meaning to start, the system I needed to build, the strategic thinking I’d promised myself I’d do? None of it happened.

I’d been busy every single day but couldn’t actually point to what I accomplished.

It felt like a failed week.

Then I realized something: I wasn’t broken. My approach was broken.

The story we’ve all been sold

Most of us have been sold this story our entire lives. Success requires discipline. Success requires sacrifice. Success means grinding through the hard parts until you finally make it.

So we try harder. We push through. We write ambitious to-do lists on Sunday night, feeling motivated and ready to conquer the week.