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_{Exploring the threads, temptation bundling, and a strategy that would work}

Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.

What’s inside?

• One idea to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{One idea to experiment with:}

The Threads:

Writing a clean draft start-to-finish isn’t easy. It’s certainly not common. Rarely do we sit down with a powerful, fully synthesized idea and transcribe it mind to paper—that’s not quite how it works. Perhaps there is an occasional topic that gives way to flowing thoughts and easy progress, but this is the exception, not the norm.

The drafting process begins as a dull grind. Even selecting a draftable idea can feel like an insurmountable challenge. We spend hours lobbing ideas and topics around, hoping an appealing candidate sticks.

Do I write about this? No, I’ve already said that. How about this? Not interesting. What about this other thing? No. Back and forth, and back and forth.

Imagine a table scattered with spools of yarn. Each spool contains a slightly frazzled end, offering just enough of itself to pinch onto. With these spools, we aren’t quite sure how much material exists within. Some contain vast quantities of colorful thread; others yield nothing more than the external tease. The catch is that we don’t know which is which from the start. The internal is hidden, so to find the good stuff, we have to go out and pull.

Ideas don’t come at the starting line. It’s the iterative, exploratory thread-pulling process that draws out the good stuff.

It’s not until you’re traveling the path that you can test different routes. What if I went here? What if I pulled on this thread? Ideation doesn’t allow for this because it’s all hypothetical at the start. This isn’t to advocate a staunch abandonment of ideation and thoughtful planning, but rather a nudge to bias toward action and exploration.

The generative approach—actively working with a sentence, an idea, a strategy—that’s what allows various threads to expose themselves to a tug. And our job is to tug them and see where we go.

You’ve got to give yourself the option to explore the nuances of a route—and the only way that happens is through the journey. You make the path as you go.

Indecision arises here, though. Analysis paralysis and perfectionism are enemies of forward motion—or any motion at all. It’s like standing at the trailhead and staring at 1,000 different routes.

Which one is safest? Which one is easiest? Which one has the best view? Which one do I choose?

We want the clean, no-eraser-mark draft—not the clunky, bolted-on version that was sanded down over and over again. We want the best first path and don’t want to backtrack, restart, and explore other options.

Messiness is a necessary prerequisite. Exploration means getting lost and restarting.

Each thread you pull exposes more learning; more learning enables strategic improvements; strategic improvements give way to nuance.

We must avoid the temptation to tackle nuance and optimization at the start.

_{Two quotes on temptation bundling:}

This week, marry the boring with something fun. James Clear’s temptation bundling is an excellent process for long-term habituation of pesky tasks. 

_{Three questions on a strategy that would work:}

1. What scenario could I piece together that I know would 100% accomplish my goals? Example: I know if I ran 10 miles a day, didn’t eat cookies, lifted weights for two hours daily, kept a meticulous log of my calories, etc I would be in fantastic shape.

2. Ignoring time, what’s really preventing the extreme measures? 

3. If I’m not willing to make the trades, is it fair to assume I don’t really want the outcome?  

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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