If there’s one lesson I’ve internalized this year that’s benefited everything I’ve touched, it’s that getting clear about what you’re doing before you begin a project is paramount.

Instead of your (unclear) vision coming into (an obscured) view as you build it, it’s worth taking the time to figure out what you’re building before going to the toolshed.

This might sound like common sense, but the discipline required to transfer an idea from the ether to a blank sheet of paper staring back at you is not trivial. And once you’ve committed the idea to paper, you’re on the hook (even if it’s just to yourself) for creating what you said you were building.

Not only does this force you to deal with the inclination to leave several options on the table at the outset, your commitment to the ever-clarifying vision of what you committed to building in the first place becomes the resolve needed to weather the inevitable storms to come.