#1: ”Ugly but effective” + How to play poorly well (Hint: RUN THE ALGORITHMS!) (#37)

From Notes on Jim Afremow's Champion's Mind: https://www.optimize.me/philosophers-notes/the-champions-mind-jim-afremow/https://www.optimize.me/philosophers-...

“Take a minute right now to think about your performance when you did not believe a good or respectable outcome was possible but you still found a way to make it happen. There is beauty in being ugly but effective (UBE) or having a good bad day (GBD) while you are not at your finest. Keep your head in the game and grind it out.”

There’s a powerful beauty in being ugly but effective and having good bad days. UBE + GBD. This is big. If we want to cultivate truly intense trust in ourselves, we need to know that we can pull it together when things start falling apart. Jack Nicklaus called it playing poorly well. Afremow tells us Rory McIlroy calls it “scrappy golf.”

Step #1 to making that happen is to KNOW that you will have x bad shots per round. It’s the unhealthy perfectionists among us (*waving to my old self!*) who struggle with this the most— thinking they should be able to get thru the day P.E.R.F.E.C.T.L.Y. (but only every day) and that if they don’t, it’s a sign of something being inherently wrong with them. (Hah.)

We need to hold our high standards of excellence while embracing the constraints of reality that (tragically!) we will *never* be perfect. Then... when the inevitable bad shot comes along, rather than beating ourselves up, we simply say, “Aha! There’s a bad shot. I knew you’d sneak in at some point. No big deal. Back to work.”

So... How’s your ugly? Here’s to being ugly but effective and having good bad days! #UBE + #GBD!