Toronto currently has a lot of construction. In fact, it’s got the most active cranes of any city in North America. Mainly, the cranes are used to put up huge condo towers. There’s one thing that always strikes me when I walk by the construction sites: the speed with which the towers go up. Every time I walk by, it seems as if another couple of storeys had been added. An entire building of tens of storeys might be completed within less than a year. Given the size of the structures, it’s amazing how quickly they go up.

To me, this is a vivid illustration of a more general truth: the actual doing of anything usually doesn’t take very long. In fact, it’s often the shortest part of the process. This larger process encompasses everything from the conception of an idea, to its mental gestation, to research about its feasibility, to the practical arrangements that have to be made for its realization. This is where the long, difficult work lies: figuring out what to do and how to do it.

Prior to the start of actual construction, the land on which the building is erected often sits vacant and idle for interminable lengths of time. The makeshift fences and slowly dilapidating pre-existing structures occupy the site for years, with seemingly no change of fate in store. This is presumably when all the various complications involving finalizing the design, selling units in advance, securing permits, planning infrastructure adjustments, and hiring contractors are being negotiated. But once construction work begins, the pace of progress is phenomenal and the project is completed in short order.

The same applies on an individual scale or in tennis. Figuring out how to get what you want and, more profoundly, what you want, are the two great tasks. Actually carrying out the actions that have been calculated to take you to a committed objective is a relative triviality. Everything is clear, and only the doing remains; the hard part is over.