Two thousand years ago, a young man walked up to the best archery instructor in his province and said, “Teach me to shoot.”
The instructor looked at him and said, “First, teach yourself not to blink.”
Not “here’s your bow.” Not “let’s talk stance.” Don’t blink.
That’s where we’re starting today.
Hi, I’m Jeff Payne. You’re listening to The Jeff Payne Show, Episode 69: The Archer Who Never Aimed.
The man’s name was Tee Chung Ji, Chang. This is Warring States China — archery isn’t a hobby; it’s status, it’s military rank, it’s how a gentleman proves himself in public without brawling for it. So when Tee Chung Ji Chang shows up wanting to be great, he’s not being modest. He wants to be the best archer alive.
His teacher, Fei Wei, tells him to go home and learn how not to blink.
So Tee Chung Ji Chang sits under his wife’s loom for two years, watching the shuttle snap back and forth, training his eyes to hold still no matter what flies at them. Two years. Not touching a bow.
He comes back. Surely now.
No. Now he has to learn to see. Fei Wei tells him to make small things look large — to watch something tiny until it fills his whole field of vision. So for three more years, Tee Chung Ji Chang stares at a louse hanging from a single strand of hair in his window, until that louse looks, to him, the size of a cart wheel.
Five years in. He still hasn’t held a bow.
When he finally does, he draws once — and puts the arrow straight through the louse without touching the hair it’s hanging from.
Here’s what I want you to sit with: Tee Chung’s Ji Chang’s ambition never got smaller. He wanted to be the greatest archer in China on day one, and he still wanted that on day eighteen hundred and something. What changed wasn’t the size of the goal. It was the size of what he was allowed to look at each day.
Big ambition. Small horizon. That’s the whole trick.
Most of us do the opposite without noticing. We carry the big goal around in our head all day — every day — like we’re supposed to be thinking about “grow the business” or “hit the number” from the moment we wake up. And instead of that being motivating, it just sits on us. It’s not fuel. It’s weight.
I’ve kept a visual map of my goals for years now — a big one, broken down into branches, broken down again into the actual thing I’m doing today. I didn’t build it to look smarter. I built it because I noticed the same thing Tee Chung’s teacher, Ji Chang, already knew: I can’t hold “grow the show” in my head every hour of every day and still do good work in the hour I’m in.
So the big goal lives somewhere I can see it — once a week, when I step back and check the whole shape of it. And every other day, I only have to look at the one branch in front of me.
The goal doesn’t get smaller by doing that. It just stops being the thing I’m dragging around at eleven in the morning while I’m supposed to be doing something else.
If you’re a CEO or a business owner, you probably think holding the big goal in your head at all times is the job. It isn’t. It’s just the part that’s easiest to confuse for the job, because it feels like vigilance.
The real work is deciding, on purpose, what narrow thing deserves your eyes today — and trusting that it’s still in service of the wide thing, even when you’re not looking at the wide thing at all.
So here’s what I’d ask you: where in your business are you still trying to hold the whole ox in your head, when what you actually need is to see the next cut?
What’s the one thing, today, that’s small enough to actually look at?
THE INSTRUCTOR WHO WOULDN’T HAND OVER THE BOW
Two thousand years ago, a young man walked up to the best archery instructor in his province and said, “Teach me to shoot.”
The instructor looked at him and said, “First, teach yourself not to blink.
Not “here’s your bow.” Not “let’s talk stance.” Don’t blink. That’s where the story starts — and it’s worth sitting with before we get to the point.
Big ambition. Small horizon. That’s the whole trick.
Five Years Before He Touched a Bow
The man’s name was Ji Chang. This is Warring States China — archery isn’t a hobby; it’s status, it’s military rank, it’s how a gentleman proves himself in public without brawling for it. So when Ji Chang shows up wanting to be great, he’s not being modest. He wants to be the best archer alive.
His teacher, Fei Wei, tells him to go home and learn how not to blink.
So Ji Chang sits under his wife’s loom for two years, watching the shuttle snap back and forth, training his eyes to hold still no matter what flies at them.
Two years. Not touching a bow.
He comes back. Surely now.
No. Now he has to learn to see. Fei Wei tells him to make small things look large — to watch something tiny until it fills his whole field of vision. So for three more years, Ji Chang stares at a louse hanging from a single strand of hair in his window, until that louse looks, to him, the size of a cart wheel.
Five years in. He still hasn’t held a bow.
When he finally does, he draws once — and puts the arrow straight through the louse without touching the hair it’s hanging from.
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Beth Zimmerman
Founder, Executive Director
BIG AMBITION. SMALL HORIZON.
Here’s what I want you to sit with: Ji Chang’s ambition never got smaller. He wanted to be the greatest archer in China on day one, and he still wanted that on day 1,800-something. What changed wasn’t the size of the goal. It was the size of what he was allowed to look at each day.
Big ambition. Small horizon. That’s the whole trick.
Most of us do the opposite without noticing. We carry the big goal around in our head all day — every day — like we’re supposed to be thinking about “grow the business” or “hit the number” from the moment we wake up. And instead of that being motivating, it just sits on us. It’s not fuel. It’s weight.
The goal doesn’t get smaller. It just stops being the thing you’re dragging around at eleven in the morning.
WHY I KEEP A MAP I BARELY LOOK AT
I’ve kept a visual map of my goals for years now — a big one, broken down into branches, broken down again into the actual thing I’m doing today. I didn’t build it to look smarter. I built it because I noticed the same thing Ji Chang’s teacher already knew: I can’t hold “grow the show” in my head every hour of every day and still do good work in the hour I’m in.
So the big goal lives somewhere I can see it — once a week, when I step back and check the whole shape of it. And every other day, I only have to look at the one branch in front of me.
The goal doesn’t get smaller by doing that. It just stops being the thing I’m dragging around at eleven in the morning while I’m supposed to be doing something else.
the move
If you’re a CEO or a business owner, you probably think holding the big goal in your head at all times is the job. It isn’t. It’s just the part that’s easiest to confuse for the job, because it feels like vigilance.
The real work is deciding, on purpose, what narrow thing deserves your eyes today — and trusting that it’s still in service of the wide thing, even when you’re not looking at the wide thing at all.
Holding the big goal in your head at all times isn’t the job. It just feels like vigilance.
WHERE THIS LEAVES YOU
Where in your business are you still trying to hold the whole ox in your head, when what you actually need is to see the next cut?
What’s the one thing, today, that’s small enough to actually look at?
Episode inspired in part by a reflection on attention and goal-setting published by Growth Mindset (Substack). The Ji Chang archery parable and the Cook Ding butchering parable are drawn from classical Chinese sources, including the Zhuangzi and the Book of Rites.
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