Stutz’s String of Pearls

Have you watched 'Stutz' - Jonah Hill's documentary about his psychologist on Netflix?

Jonah's vision was to share tools from Stutz that have profoundly changed his life and one of my favourite is 'String of Pearls'.

It goes like this:

Your job is to put the next pearl on the string. That's all, nothing else.

Each pearl equals one action.

Since each pearl is of similar size, each action has the same value.

Stutz says "this is a matter of identity. Who am I? I'm not great, I'm not shit.... I look at myself just in terms of the habits with which I take action. If there is a failure or a big success, you are going to keep going because you are the person that puts the next pearl on the string.”

Inside each pearl is a dark spot (coined a 'turd' by Stutz) - a reminder that no effort you make will be perfect. Even if there were failures or mistakes, the key is to acknowledge the 'turd' and keep adding to the string anyway.

You win by simply adding more pearls, not by adding 'perfect' ones.

Perfectionism and overwhelm keeps so many of us stuck in inaction. I love this visual reminder of consistency and progress over perfection.

Our job is to put the next pearl on the string. That’s all, nothing else.

Photo by Patrick Langwallner