1, #178 - Be specific.
Estimated Read Time: 50 seconds.
I recently finished a course on Behavior Design, which included enough frameworks and tips to stock a year of 1 letters. But one in particular stood out to me:
Be specific.
In the course, the point was that you can’t properly understand or improve a behavior, if you’re too abstract. Even without changing anything else, you’re much more likely to achieve “Run around my neighborhood every M/W/F at 630am,” vs. just “Exercise more.”
I’ve also been thinking about this, in terms of writing: Good writing is specific. Adding in nuanced details makes fiction more visual and nonfiction more persuasive.
So, why aren’t we more specific?
For one: It’s hard. Getting the particulars right costs time and effort. You don’t get the specifics on your first glance, or the first time your mind bounces off an idea. Seeing them requires zooming in, and you can only zoom into one thing at a time.
For two: It’s scary. Vague generalities are harder to refute, so making a specific claim exposes you to being proved wrong. And abstract goals can be excused away, but if you’ve made a specific commitment… well. When it’s 629am on Friday morning, then you’ve got a clear decision to make.
It’s hard and it’s scary and it’s worth it! Be specific.
Insight inspired by BJ Fogg PhD BJ Fogg’s Behavior Design course. I can’t recommend it enough!
As a practice, I usually sit down to write out of discipline and not because I have something to say…so I just grab a moment from my notes and walk through the five senses for a specific memory frame of an event. A poetry professor taught me this. I have figured out what I’m trying to say this way, over and over. Great share, Jonathan.
So simple, so powerful! Just really talked with me today as well. It is amazing how you can organise life in a normal way but then something happens and you are back to square one "exercise more" , thanks for those thoughts! And great reminder.