My 3 Pillars of Success

Welcome back! After a short week break, Launch Letter is back in action and I’m so glad you’re here.

The last week was full of some personal stuff that took up the bulk of my time and energy. So, I didn’t have the time to do much work on any of my projects or Launch Letter. That stuff was out of my control, but this time management has become somewhat of a theme since returning from Spain.

What I thought was going to be a super productive time in my life has, in actuality, been mostly spent relaxing and having fun. While I’m 100% alright with that, I do care about progressing my resume and building my skills.

So, in todays edition, I’ll be taking a look at some of my past success, and the characteristics that all of them share. Hopefully I’ll be able to use this reflection to kickstart my productivity going forward, and maybe you can do the same.

#1 - Structure

Like I mentioned in the previous edition, structure is crucial for me if I want to be productive. One way this takes shape, is my Workflowy, where I keep track of all of my tasks and goals for the week. But, structure doesn’t just come from organization apps, it also comes from the nature of a task.

I’ve always excelled in environments that have constraints. From school to sports, activities with deadlines and rules have consistently been my strong suit.

This doesn’t mean I don’t love being creative, but a completely blank slate with free reign to do whatever can be paralyzing. The endless possibilities make starting something simple seem so daunting. Activities with rigid requirements, but room to problem solve, always get me to do my most effective work

Launch Letter is a prime example of managing this well. It gives me the opportunity to write and reflect, while still giving me a time and topic limit. It forces me to take action, without stifling my creativity too much.

#2 - Motivation

The second key part of being productive for me is motivation. There has to be a reason to do whatever task is at hand. Again, school is a great example for this. For the majority of my life, getting into a top college was the ultimate goal.

That was very important to me, so doing well in school had a built in motivator, even if the work wasn’t always the most engaging. The point is, the why behind whatever you’re doing has to be rock solid if you want it to have any sort of longevity at all.

This is something I’ve actually struggled with regarding Launch Letter, and more specifically, making other content to grow my personal brand (Twitter, TikTok). I do enjoy making content, but I’ve realized that the overarching point of all of it isn’t really clear to me. Do I want to make money from it? Do I simply enjoy being creative? Do I want to use it as a networking tool?

I’m really just not sure.

Launch Letter provides clear intrinsic value by forcing me to reflect, do projects, and improve my writing ability. Twitter doesn’t really provide that as much, so its something I have to really take a hard look at going forward.

Either way, figuring that out is part of the journey, and I’m looking forward to it all the same.

#3 - Engagement

The third and final piece of success for me is engagement. The task has to be engaging to interact with at some level. I love solving problems. Thats what drew me to computer science in the first place.

Interning for the cleaning business has been an excellent representation of what engaging work should look like. I’ve gotten the opportunity to do meaningful work on real life problems. From building automation workflows to track the status of client leads, to running email marketing campaigns, the work is fun, challenging, and is immensely satisfying.

No matter what I’m doing, finding some level of enjoyment in it makes achieving success far easier.

How It All Fits Together

What I’ve found, is that success is easy when a goal is built on these 3 pillars. When a task is enjoyable, has real meaning, and is supported by structure, its almost trivial to complete it.

So the hard part then, is creating goals and pursuing activities that do fulfill all 3 of these pillars. And, the truth is, the majority of things won’t hit all 3. You have to find a balance between them.

Some goals, like school, are mainly driven by structure and motivation. Some classes can be a slog, some are interesting, but the structure and motivation do most of the heavy lifting. Managing that balance for different tasks is crucial to finding success.

I’ll leave you with this. Take your three biggest goals or activities, and see if they satisfy these three pillars. Through that reflection, you might better understand how you are, or aren’t, achieving the success you seek.

Are your goals built on these pillars?

Reply and let me know, I’d love to hear about it!

Till next time,

-Kirby