Building a DIY LiFePO4 105Ah Solar Generator - Part 1
I love reading about projects like this, and often dream of doing them. I'd like to think of myself as someone that can accomplish wiring, and soldering, and figuring out electrical circuits. But I'm honestly not that person on this level.
Yes I can frame a house, and wire a house, but it's all layman understanding from doing it for work for a few years. Plus, I don't choose to spend my time doing these types of projects. I got an bike rides and read books instead.
I think coming to that realization a few years ago was great, but I stopped feeling guilty when I didn't take on some cool project that I saw. It's always worth understanding what you can do, and what you won't do. Then let yourself off the hook for the things you won't get to and enjoy the things you are putting your time into.
Frustrating Catch-22
There is a frustrating Catch-22 you can fall victim to if you’re not careful. I’ve encountered it often in my productivity coaching: “I’ll start using my system once it’s set up the way I want it” syndrome.
Nah, you won’t. Because your system will never be set up. Because the only way to set up a system is to use that system. - Small Bridges Big Work
This is common in so many ways from finding software tools for any task to thinking you personally have enough knowledge to start a project "properly". When you just keep stalling you can never really get to the end because you haven't picked a direction to go in. Yes you may start in the wrong direction, but 99% of the time some movement will at worst let you know you're going the wrong direction.
Once you start, you have some momentum and it's far more likely that you'll finish.
Self-Serving Bias
This note came up while I worked through my vault for connections. Self-Serving bias is when you perceive yourself in an overly favourable manner. We all fall into this, by assuming the best about our own intentions, often without giving others the same benefit when we see their actions.
We do this when we don't achieve something and blame the fact that we don't have the "right" connections.
This is taking responsibility when things are going well, it's all us and our work. But when something isn't going well, we shift the blame for the scenario onto external factors we can't influence.
I find this reference in two locations in my vault:
Your Kids Aren't Great at Everything
In the same way, positively affirming kids talents and encouraging their attempts is indeed good for them. But that doesn't mean that telling our kids they are great at everything is necessarily better. Pg 253 Leaders Eat Last
It's okay to let your kids fail, in fact it's a powerful lesson in how to overcome adversity. This relates to the porcelain dolls theory from You Are Awesome. In that book Neil Pasricha talks about the fact that most people have never been through true scarcity so when they come to some true adversity, they break.
I did a 300km bike ride a few weeks back and when a friend asked the two of us that did it how long it would take to train we both agreed that fitness was only one part. The second part was simply being a tough old bastard (the questioner is 25 years younger than me and 45 years younger than my friend). Knowing that it's hard 10 hours in, but this too will pass if you just keep going.
Part of life is just being a tough old bastard. We need to let kids start to learn this early, by letting them do hard things and fail.