10x thinking is one of the most popular ideas in business and motivational material. It seems to be everywhere you look these days, with the constant push to GROW GROW GROW everything in your life.
This “advice” challenges people of all stripes to think bigger, get more, supersize their goals and businesses, and so on. And while there’s nothing wrong with growth, learning, and expanding, this push to make every last thing in your life bigger and better can be misleading.
Do you need to 10x your health? Your finances? Your parenting?
Part of the rationale of “10x” is that we aren’t thinking big enough, which insinuates that what we already know and are already doing isn’t enough… And that’s a dangerous thought pattern to get into.
Again, growth and expansion are great, but how do we actually get there? We know from experience that growth – like creativity – is an incremental process of using what we have (and what we know) to move toward what we want, and that the path between these two points is filled with learning, setbacks, stumbling, and surprise successes.
All of this makes me think about the broader creative process. Is an artists worried about 10x-ing their painting? Is a film director 10x-ing a movie or a poet 10x-ing a poem? To some degree, they are. For example, Speilberg going after John Williams for the Jaws soundtrack was seriously big thinking at that time in his career… But still, that choice aligned with his creative vision, not just the pressure to “go big” (more on that idea in a moment).
For the most part, though, the creative people we admire are pursuing what matters to them BECAUSE it matters to them. It’s not growth for growth’s sake. It’s a more nuanced, personal approach that is dictated by where they are, what they want, and what knowledge/tools/skills/ideas they have available to them.
Who said everything needs to be 10x?
Do you want big growth because you actually want it, or because it’s en vogue? Are you worried that shooting for anything less than 10x makes you an underachiever? We use the creative process across aspects of our lives to move from where we are to where we want to be, but there’s an important question inside of that definition of the process… Where do we actually want to be? And in answering that question, does the creation at hand actually require 10x? Give this some serious thought.
Sometimes a goal is big enough to require serious scaling. It may require a whole team, resources, dependency on others, relationships, and beyond… But to know for yourself, it’s going to take some honest evaluation. Growth is great, but it’s worth asking if EVERYTHING needs that kind of scaling.
The true process of creation is more like a laboratory experiment than a growth strategy. You start where you are, aim your attention and intention at what you want to create, and learn by doing. This process may veer in new directions or change in priority. It may fail, turn out differently than expected, or surprise you in unforeseen ways… And that’s a good thing.
And so, the path toward mastery (or even creative “success”) is a practice. You learn by doing, and that means existing in current reality and looking to the future you want to create simultaneously. This means that the creative process unfolds in real time, and the best way to serve it is with patience, care, and honest observation about what’s working, what isn’t, and what the next steps might be.
The idea of “10x everything” is fueled more by competition and comparison than honest creation. Instead of worrying about growth for growth’s sake, worry about what YOU want from your creations. What is YOUR vision? Not the vision of a guru or distant advice-giver, but your own creative desire.
10x-ing can be a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the primary goal – nor is it a universal principle to be applied to every aspect of life and business. The goal is to follow your creative desires to their natural conclusions, and if that leads to efforts toward massive growth, then that’s wonderful! If not, it doesn’t mean they’re any less valuable or educational.
Not every goal, creation, or piece of your life is worthy of 10x growth. It all depends on your personal desires and values, and those may evolve over time. As you move forward through the creative process (and moving forward is key), you can evaluate what matters most to you, and decide whether or not a 10x strategy is right for the project, the situation, the system, whatever… As it is RIGHT NOW.
Make these decisions based on your own desires and current reality, not because it’s “what you should do.” It’s totally normal to have lofty goals, but their success will come from the attention and intention you give to them, not because you do what everyone else is doing. It doesn’t matter if your goals are big, small, or somewhere in between. You assess your desire, then decide what to do about it. Desire and decide – that’s it! Consider your life as a creator. What really matters to you? Would applying some 10x strategy align with what matters most? If so, excellent! If not, that’s okay too!
It’s not a zero-sum game. Focusing on what you want right now doesn’t mean other things will never happen. Having a current creative vision doesn’t mean that vision is fixed forever and won’t change in the future.
The important part is letting your current desire and attention drive your actions, whether or not those desires include any kind of 10x-ing.
What do you truly want to create? Put your focus there and learn as you go. In the process, the things deserving of a 10x approach will reveal themselves, and the things that don’t deserve it will be just fine too. You can continue to learn, grow, and refine as you go, observing your intentions and priorities throughout the process as things inevitably change.
10x strategies are all well and good, but they aren’t a universal rule or something you should apply to every creative process. Instead of following the trends or keeping up with the proverbial Joneses, follow your desires and create what matters most to you at whatever scale fits your current reality. The rest of the conventional advice is noise.
