Issue #6 - Road to end result

Efforts to reach the end result, processes and methods

Hello all,

Welcome back to the Thought Box! I hope that you had a great weekend.

I hope that you will like what I have prepared for you this week.

Let’s start, shall we?

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⬆️ Joy of finish line

Let’s start with something personal.

We were working hard and waiting patiently for my wife’s residence permit application, and finally it was granted. Soon she will be joining me here in Norway. Also, that was the most important news for this week, which also inspired me to write about this topic. We were struggling with the stress of being apart from each other. Although we knew that was a tiring and long process, But the moment we learned the news, we forgot about all that emotion and feeling; we were just happy.

Imagine that you train for a boxing match for months, trying to learn the weaknesses, getting stronger, learning tactics, developing strategies, and so on. You have to bring your best game to the event. Then the fight starts; it is a 12-round boxing match. You are not done. The most tiring moment is when you are closest to the finish line. You are fighting; rounds are passing.

Getting hit, getting hurt...

Sore arms, bruised face...

Then the final gong They announced that you won the fight. Trust me, with that joy, you won’t feel any of the negative things I just wrote above.

There is also the opposite side, the loser, who also prepared for this fight, got hurt, and also lost. You don’t want to be that guy. No one wants to be that guy. So better prepare for your life, make better plans, and focus on that joy at the finish line.

That’s the goal.

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➡️ It’s not a sprint, not a marathon, it’s 800 meters.

Let me explain.

There are a lot of different lengths and variations in running. Starting from 100 meters to 42 km for the full marathon. All of them require different training and lifestyles to match them. For example, 100-meter sprinters are more explosive, very bulky, and muscular. Meanwhile, marathoners are way more skinnier with endurance.

If I ask you what is the hardest, most probably you'll tell me the full marathon. I’d agree with that when you just think about the distance. But there is another angle to look at:

The mental fatigue

When you think about it, for 100 meters, you need to spend all your explosive energy in a short amount of time with great pace. On the other side, for marathons, you start at a very slow pace, try to keep your pace for a long time, and focus on your endurance. But 800 meters is very tough. It is too long to run at full speed from the start and too short to run like a marathon.

According to Exercise Physiologist and High Performance Sports Science Consultant Professor Ross Tucker, the 800 meters is physiologically the hardest distance for purposes for racing at an olympic level. Tucker found that 800-meter fatigue is the kind in which muscles lose the ability to move the runner forward as quickly, similar to the kind of fatigue experienced in shorter 200 or 400-meter sprints, so you slow down¹.

Basically, you need to shift your focus and work with your body to keep the optimum pace all the time. In the beginning, conserve some energy with some pace before finishing with a sprint. But the catch is that your body will work against you. You need to keep pushing when your body is falling apart.

Just for that finish line.

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⬇️ Keeping so many tabs open drains the memory

This is the most used metaphor between me and my wife. We experience this a lot. Did you every experience this as well?

You open many tabs in Chrome and then your browser slows down, your computer slows down.

Generally speaking, you can only focus on one tab a time but you still keep those open “just in case” you will need it. So does our backlog and/or TODO list. These things in back in our minds, fills up this precious memory.

So think about your goals and your TODO list. I bet, you are a lot of things in it. As long as you don’t narrow your focus, those tasks will sit there forever. Simply beacause we don’t know where to start.

My simple framework for these problems:

1. Prioritize

2. Clean up / Delegate

3. Focus on one task and do it until it is complete

4. Repeat

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⬅️ Throwback time: Top quote from last week

Janis Ozolins @OzolinsJanis

6. A lot of worthwhile things follow this pattern.

This one is a bit interesting because actually this week I was talking with a friend about my photographs. She asked this simple yet extremely important question.

How does the RAW photo looks like?

Why this is extremely important question? Let me explain.

So most of the times, the end user doesn’t care about behind the scenes. When you order a food, do you think about how is it prepared or do you only care about when it is served? So it is pretty similar in photography as well. Let me show you:

This photo is from my Bergen trip and as you can see I split into three picture collage. From left to right, let’s number them from 1 to 3.

1. This photo is from Google Street View. I just found this to explain “what I see”. As you can see, this photo is from summer time, so I just highlighted the area that caught my attention.

2. This is the RAW photo straight out of camera. So this one is “what my camera sees”. Thanks to my ultra telephoto lens, Sigma 100-400mm, you can zoom in A LOT. Well, you can see clearly.

3. This is the final edited photo. This is for you, this is “what you are going to see”.

So, what about that quote?

Basically, I capture a lot of photos. At least push myself to take each and every thing that caught my attention. But previously, I wasn’t like this. Even if I take a picture and if I don’t like how it looks in the preview, I would delete it right away. But now, I work on it, try to give it a purpose, a story, a meaning.

So there are a lot of times, we are more close to say “I quit”, but don’t. Those tiny struggles can make you say “I’m glad I did that.” after some time.

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Well, here we are. We just completed this week’s Thought Box. Thank you so much for joining me on this issue.

I really hope to see you in future issues. 🙏

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Have a great week,
Furkan

1. https://deadspin.com/an-exercise-physiologist-explains-why-800-meters-hurts-1694552448