Quirkbag Collection #5 – 23.05.25
“I can do this all day.”
This line has been immortalised by the supersoldier, Captain America himself, on the big screen.
Growing up as a child of the cinema, this quote stuck around my mind, even today. The adventures I’ve had and the time I’ve spent with film and television characters shaped my personality. As I reflect on my own experiences, I find that sometimes cinema mirrors life and vice versa. The plots, the twists, the characters seemingly just pop out from the big screen.
I get it, it’s a little weird and strange opinion. It’s a little abstract and “out there”, but just give the thought a moment and let it sit with you. If you grew up loving films and television, you’d have some take on that too.
Recently, I had a tiny inkling that I might have just pieced together the secret of doing successful things in life. Maybe. Just maybe.
Or it’s just an odd pattern in life I found.
The Legends
We’re familiar with the legends, on-screen and off-screen.
Bill Gates spent years building Microsoft, beginning in 1975, each hour ruthlessly spent with intense focus on building towards the end goal of a successful software company at the start. He never stopped until it became a reality.
Warren Buffett spent 80 years of his life, from age 11, on a journey of understanding and learning the way to invest and search for true gems in the corporate world. Not once did he give in to the ‘institutional imperative’. He stuck to his own beliefs, through thick and thin, not once in a while, but for 80 years. Just imagine having a fraction of his patience and mindset. Oh the wonders you could achieve.
Jerry Seinfeld wrote jokes every day when he started as a comic. It didn’t matter that it was an unpopular career choice. He stuck with it, being gritty, consistent, and focused deeply on practice. Besides coining the ‘Don’t Break The Chain’ method which built consistency in writing jokes daily, he also hustled doing stand-up frequently. He laid out all the jokes he ever wrote since 1975 on yellow legal pads covering a whole Manhattan side street. Mind-boggling!
Maybe we’ll never be like them, and we don’t have to be to be successful. But do you see the pattern?
The Lesson
As Ethan Hunt always receives it, your mission should you choose to accept: stay singularly obsessed with doing one thing consistently and frequently until successful.
Read it again.
Then think about it. How did they really achieve what they did?
To achieve a goal, we put in the effort and the work to make progress and eventually become good enough to complete it.
To become great and exceptional, we must then put in extraordinary amounts of dedication, energy, time and effort to become better than others. You must first do the work, then you become the person, and then finally be eligible to enjoy the outcome of ‘greatness’. Captain America was Steve Rogers before a superhero – the person who had the same beliefs and ethics before the “greatness”.
We doubt ourselves after trying something out for a while without success. We question the meaning and purpose of trying, inching closer to simply giving up and throwing it all away. How much is truly enough? How much should we try before we know it’s a dead end? 80 years?
It takes more than patience, resilience and a thick skull to throw yourself against the same walled obstacle again and again and again until the slightest dent is made. It takes character and deep belief in the value of what lies on the other side of that wall, assuming the direction in which you are throwing yourself is correct.
Let me share my own story, something far less heroic than the makings of a superhero like Captain America.
My Goal
I had a goal: to run 2.4 kilometers under 11 minutes and 30 seconds for a fitness test.
I personally hate cardio. Like truly with a burning hatred. To make someone run habitually for a goal of ‘getting fit” when the results are not readily seen is practically asking them to watch paint dry while sitting still the whole time. Yeah, it’s that unappealing.
It’s hard to devote energy and time and work up front when everything is uncertain. As I trained for the goal, running every few days to achieve a highly realistic goal, it was a brutal and frustrating experience. Every moment of the practice runs stung. It felt endless.
Just imagine timing yourself running and coming up short every time.
12 minutes and 20 seconds. 12 minutes 10 seconds. 12:05. 12:00. 11:50.
I took a week’s break during this period of seeming improvement. Guess what happened when I got back on the horse? 12 minutes 10 seconds.
I ran at nights and I ran in the mornings. I ran and ran. It was the dreaded part of the day.
Then came the test. I felt uncomfortable about achieving the goal. It felt like my own “Mission Impossible”, except way less epic. For that 2.4km, I ran like hell. It was everything I had…and then some.
Was it worth it? Well…11 min 24 seconds.
Yes. It was worth it.
If you hate cardio, you know how hard it is to force practice runs to train. You wake up and once you get the “I have to run today” thought, your motivation just plummets.
I was in that situation for many many days during the training phase. But as time passed and things became clearer, I realised it is not about motivation. It is not about goals.
It is about you.
Your Turn
Here’s the simple question: Are you committed or are you interested?
Captain America epitomised commitment and determination when stood his ground alone against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame at one point.
Broken shield? No matter. Broken spirit? Never.
I was committed to training, even if I doubted the outcome. I committed to running even though I kept missing my mark. It was not an inspiration that made me run.
You can begin today.
Pick something you know you want to do or achieve. Then make a deal with yourself to be committed.
Not interested. Committed.
Being interested gives you problems.
Being committed brings you solutions when you face problems.
Finally, if you want to achieve the end goal against the odds, think of Captain America:
Can you do this all day?
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