Feedback and Goals

I'm not familiar with the rules of football, so apart from knowing that ball in net means goal, I have no idea what a good play looks like. The game of football elicits no excitement from me, in fact I can't understand why so many people watch and enjoy football. You see I do not understand the visual feedback I get when watching a match, and thus I am unable to feel the excitement that makes football something akin to religion to a large part of the world population. Clearly the problem is not with football, but with my lack of understanding.

So what does this have to do with goals?

If you are playing a game and you do not receive clear feedback on your actions, and thus do not know if you are winning or loosing, you will inevitably loose interest in the game. The goal of any game is to improve until you win, the same is true of any goal in your life. The question is what differentiates the skill of pushing console buttons in the correct order from any other goal? Yes, feedback! The feedback from your button pushes are clear, in enjoyable games, and thus you can see yourself improve until you reach a certain level of competence. When you work towards a goal often the feedback is not as clear for various reasons, ranging from unclear, immeasurable goals to uncertainty as to what constitutes a move in the right direction. Ensuring that you are much more likely to give up on said goal.

When you set goal, make the goals measurable. Make sure that you clearly define what a good move is. When you make one of these moves, feel the joy and excitement of knowing that you are now that much closer to your actual outcome. This will give you constant bursts of enjoyment with each micro choice in the right direction, and quickly alert you when you are moving away from your intended outcome. You will thus reach your goals more consistently.

Why not give it a try?

Taking the plunge

There is a definite inner conflict that happens when you invest your hard earned income in a venture with no guaranteed return. On the one hand you (and by you I really mean me) have the promise, excitement and potential of a new venture, on the other hand you might loose it all.

Luckily for me, this is challenge money, not mine at all. So it happened that Tanya and I decided to invest in an online venture. You will have to wait a little while to find out exactly what this business is all about, I will tell you that it is in the health industry...

So there I was standing in a bank queue with a tin full of cash in my hands, ready to pay for our domain registration and web hosting, and I realized why a lot of people get stuck in their own particular rut. Fear is a nasty character, some how it convinces you that you do not want to do what ever is causing you to be afraid. More often than not, the reason you give yourself has nothing to do with fear, and so you sabotage yourself. I'm afraid to invest in our new business. Afraid that it might fail, losing out capital. Afraid that I will embarrass myself while trying to build the business. Afraid for a million other irrelevant reasons. Then I look into myself and take the plunge anyway. Immediately I feel some of the apprehension turn into excitement. We have calculated the risk, weighed our options, the business has potential and makes sense. The decision to jump makes all the difference.

I heard that Donald Trump asks himself what the worst case scenario is, if he can live with that, he goes for it. I came to understand something of that mindset. Face the reality, acknowledge the fear for what it is, make your decision, and jump.

50c Steps in Life

In life neither success nor failure is reached through giant leaps, rather it is the multitude of small steps and little decisions that take you in either direction. We see the giant effects of a million small steps and marvel at the ability one person has to achieve such lofty standards, whatever they may be.

Of all the lessons I have learned during this challenge, this lesson is probably the one that up until now have influenced me the most. Every day you make choices, simple choices that either take you closer to your goals, or pulls you further away. Each of these choices seems trivial, in the bigger scheme of things is will make no difference of you act on this one choice or not. The cumulative effect, on the other hand, is staggering. Before you know it your inconsequential actions have either pulled you into the dark caverns of failure, or propelled you into the stratosphere of success.

Many people, me included, try to find the one thing that will make all the difference in their lives. Today I want to tell you that there is no single big thing, no One Gate to open, no final wall. All your small choices, all the little obstacles, adds up and becomes the snowball that is your life, your success, your choice.

I'm not skipping out on the small actions, if I keep getting the small things done, the big things take car of themselves. There is another part of the equations, that is seeing the big picture, having clear goals, for they are what pulls your small actions in the direction you want your life to go. Without that picture, your actions will tire you out and lead you nowhere.