How you do anything is how you do everything?

“How you do anything is how you do everything” Sounds cool, right? If you are good at something, that would make you good at everything. Well I’ve been a long-time believer of this and I only realize now that my interpretation hasn’t been correct. It’s been an interpretation that was made while cruising at 30,000 feet.

This is not a universal law. How you take decisions and behave in one situation, can not be generalized. A friend of mine is very ambitious, loves what he’s working on, and shows extreme attention to detail, however when it comes to cooking, oh my god, this person is the most lousy human being I’ve ever seen. How he does one thing is very clearly not how he does everything. It changes with the context he is in.

This principle however, does hold true in areas which are not working well. A person who avoids conflict will hold back on having uncomfortable conversations with their colleagues, and probably also not bring up what’s bothering them in their personal relations as well. His values steer his decisions, and behaviour.

Zooming out, how do we really do anything, how do we decide, and how do we behave? Your values and the context, combined, decide how we do anything. Decisions driven by your values will be consistent, but your situation will be constantly evolving, with a lot of variables outside of your control and horizon. What that means is that how you do anything doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how you will do everything.

From 30,000 feet, everything looks like a pattern. On the ground, you realise some things are consistent, like your instincts, and some things are just turbulence. Knowing the difference is how you actually make better decisions.