There’s a process for anything worth doing well. Steps to take, points of performance, the occasional “hack” as you progress and learn ways around those first steps.

If I’m learning something new, I study those steps. Obsessively. Trying to map my way to success in an effort to get there faster.

And of course I learn the same thing every time: that there are no shortcuts, and sometimes the map gets confusing.

And the task gets frustrating for a while. But if I keep at it, I’ll find that key. The thing that unlocks the next level of performance.

It’s a pivot, a point at which the direct changes, dramatically, and opens new ways to approach the task at hand.

If I’m writing, it’s how I structure an article/story/essay. If I’m at work, it’s how I organize a particular process. If I’m lifting kettlebells, it’s something that at last makes sense and the lifts get simpler.

The pivot arrives when we’re ready for it, and if we rush to that point, we’ll miss its value. Lose out on that joy in the path it sends us down.