The elusive secret sauce

April 27, 2021

Are you searching, friend? For that next brilliant idea? The breakthrough, the tidbit that will unlock some invisible door inside your head, that will really fix your trouble, truly and always?

I often am. I find myself with a little problem, say, a few extra pounds I’d like to lose. And then I start the Googling. I read articles. I listen to podcasts. I buy books on Amazon. I research, I scour—as if there’s some secret method, some trick, that will make everything click, that will make all the difference.

But here’s the thing: There is no trick.

There is no secret sauce, no juicy nugget that only a select few know, that you just need to uncover for yourself. Seek and ye shall find doesn’t apply here.

No. Mostly, there is just diligent, consistent effort towards a goal. (How boring is that?) The emphasis is on consistent. It’s so easy to start things, but how many have you finished? Where’s your follow-through?

It’s easy to consume, to absorb, to read and listen and watch and get coached and ask questions and read just a little more and maybe “think” about the problem. But the only thing that changes anything is making those small, consistent efforts.

It doesn’t have to be every day, but it should be most days. You don’t have to stop reading, but you do have to start putting what you read into practice.

Advice is great. I’m giving some now. But if you just read this advice, and nothing changes, well, nothing will change. You’ll just keep looking for an answer, but you won’t find it.

The secret sauce is not more information. The secret sauce is doing.