Plumbing and non-plumbing work.

There are certain tasks that we can get done without facing much emotional resistance. These tasks are equivalent to a plumber doing his/her job. No matter how they are feeling, they know how to fix the pipes so that the water starts flowing.

On the other hand, there is work that is new and challenging and emotionally toll-taking. The voice of self-sabotage and fear makes it difficult for us to move forward. There is ambiguity and we have not yet found the right way to do it.

But if we spend enough time tackling this kind of work, slowly a pattern emerges, we start seeing what works and what doesn't and we are able to repeat it. As we keep doing this, we keep shifting the non-plumbing work to plumbing work and level up. And we find a new project, a new non-plumbing work to work on as a new challenge.

Update: HT to Seth Godin for the plumbing metaphor mentioned in his podcast episode here: https://play.acast.com/s/akimbo/industries