1000 Secrets to Success — Why we Believe There Should be ONE Secret to Success

Stop looking for that ONE secret and start stacking your 1000 pebbles

There is no 1 secret to success; There is a 1000.

We believe this nonsense because it's in our nature to do so. We use stories to understand the world. But stories must fit a narrative that often overlooks the messy details that make up reality and success stories sell well, the simpler they are!

"Elon Musk's work ethic"

"Steve Jobs's vision"

"Albert Einstein's Imagination"

"Leonardo da Vinci's genius"

The problem isn't that they are wrong but that they are incomplete. Success isn’t a result of one revolutionary secret but a 1000 compounding and incremental ones.

We are fooled by nature

Media and conventional wisdom aren't the only reasons we believe this baloney.

Our biological wiring is also against us on this one: it's called the Narrative Fallacy.

Simply put, It's our mind's love for a good story that skips over complicated details and turns the randomness of life into a neat, tidy tale with clear causes and effects.

It's like squeezing a wild, sprawling forest into a small, orderly garden!

The synergy of stacking 1000 pebbles

A pebble is any tiny act that gives us a positive return on effort.

Brushing your teeth is a pebble, and so is being thankful for the food on your plate.

Say you want to improve your sleep:

You buy blue light-blocking glasses to normalize your body's melatonin production levels at night. You wear it for a few hours before bedtime, but after a week, you don't feel any changes and proceed to return it.

But why?!

Even though they are proven to improve your sleep quality, the effect is still marginal.

But what happens when you stack more pebbles on top?

My sleep was terrible last year, so I raged a war against it and did almost everything possible.

I got a weighted blanket, a quality pillow, and a memory foam topper, started exercising daily, cut my caffeine intake in the evening, and more!

My sleep score went from this:

To this:

It's a lot to ask for one thing to fix your sleep or any aspect of your life.

Even my expensive massage chair alone couldn't make much of a difference. But combined with 10–15 others' sleep hygiene habits everything changed for the best.

The biggest mistake anyone could make is underestimating the impact of a 10% or 5% improvement.

The synergy of these tiny pebbles creates disproportional results that are larger than the sum of its parts.

Taking a hot shower in the evening made my massage sessions more effective. Sunlight exposure mixed with a caffeine cut combined with my blue light-blocking glasses did wonders for my melatonin levels and my ability to fall asleep soundly.

Balance makes this art possible

We can't use tiny pebbles as a base for our stack.

The first rock will give us the biggest jump start (height) on self-improvement. The sexiest productivity tips and tricks are worthless if we don't have a solid grip on the basics. It's called Thinking from first principles.

Here are some foundations for every human being:

• Physical health: Nutrition, exercise, and sleep.
• Mental health: Asking for help and basic emotional intelligence.
• Personal health: Relationships and goals.
• Financial health: Avoiding poverty.

You can lay the next rock once you are at least 70% good on these fundamentals.

But not just any rock. Even the smoothest, most lickable rock/habit isn't worth stacking if it's going to wreck your balance and cause the stack to come crashing down.

The productivity gain from pulling an all-nighter isn’t worth the sleep deprivation the next day.

It’s all a beautiful balancing act. We are playing the long run here. We are lifers in this game. We want to add only what we can sustain for the longest time, ideally forever!

These are not “habits”. This is our life.

So test a lot and stick with what works for YOU.

Takeaway:

Don't waste time looking for that one thing.

Start stacking small acts one at a time. Always start with the basics and test everything as you go. Stick only to what works in the long run.

Slow is steady and steady is fast.