There’s a great quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that goes something like: we measure ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others measure us based on what we’ve done. This makes sense, of course. But it’s awfully frustrating when there’s a gap between what we know we can accomplish and what we’ve done up to that point.

Jeff Bezos, in his 2018 letter to Amazon shareholders, tells an unusual story about handstands. “A close friend recently decided to learn to do a perfect free-standing handstand,” he recounted.4 She took a handstand workshop at a yoga studio, but wasn’t progressing as fast as she wanted, so she hired—yes!—a handstand coach. Bezos recounts what the

We’re stuck in permanent “execution mode,” without a moment to take stock or ask questions about what we really want from life.

it’s important to ask yourself: in a year’s time, if I didn’t do this, how would I feel?

The challenge for all of us is an inner one: to keep going when it seems like no one is paying attention or cares. And to believe that eventually the world will catch up.

As she approached the door, her mother gave her one last piece of advice. “Whenever you have a choice of what to do,” she told Marion, “choose the more interesting path.”

Her north star? Autonomy.

There’s great existential comfort in feeling that you know what to do. When we’re busy and focused on execution, there’s no time to ask questions that might have discomfiting answers. Is this the right path? What does success really mean? Am I living my life the way I want to?

Part of playing the long game is understanding that you can’t always immediately jump into the ring. Moving slow may feel like wasting time. But every moment you spend understanding the nature of the game, and how it works, makes you stronger once you do get in.