Oct 19
I love reading The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett’s Journal because of essays such as this one: The Economics Of Fear. I’m at least a couple of steps behind where Ferrett is in personal development. I’m still learning to step out, to try things where I may very well fail. It’s baby steps, but I keep reminding myself that even stumbling forward is forward movement, which really beats sitting there with a blanket over my head.
I found this talk very inspiring: Merlin Mann on Getting Creative Things Done – Boing Boing.
The Sound of Young America
The part I particularly liked was: you already have what you need to do the creative work you’re dreaming of – now go do it! Don’t wait for the perfect tool, the perfect circumstances, or the perfect time. Get started now, do a terrible job of it, then improve. Don’t wait to be assured of perfection before you start or you’ll accomplish nothing.
Many politicians … are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool … who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
What difference does 0.45-percent make? On a daily basis, none. On a yearly basis, it’s a lot.
I was listening to Scientific American’s rebroadcast of their interview with Dr. Atul Gawande, Atul Gawande Redux. He describes sitting in with one of the doctors whose patients had an extraordinarily high success rate. The doctor broke down the numbers for his patient:
“So when you experiment you’re looking at the difference between a 99.95-per-cent chance of staying well and a 99.5-per-cent chance of staying well. Seems hardly any difference, right? On any given day, you have basically a one-hundred-per-cent chance of being well. But”—he paused and took a step toward me—“it is a big difference.” He chalked out the calculations. “Sum it up over a year, and it is the difference between an eighty-three-per-cent chance of making it through 2004 without getting sick and only a sixteen-per-cent chance.”
Not eating that bag of chips is not likely to make my weight change. Getting exercise does not change my feeling of physical well being. Being patient with my kids isn’t likely to change the way I relate to them. Putting aside an extra $5 doesn’t change my tax bracket. None of this stuff matters.
The tricky thing is that it doesn’t matter except in a 0.45-percent way. 0.45-percent change is easy to lose in the background noise of life, but it adds up. We’re not tuned to notice that we were healthy two days more this year than last year, or that we’re 1% lighter, more energetic, more compassionate, or wealthier.
For me, the thing that works best to keep me going on 0.45-percent improvements is recording that I’ve made that effort. The most difficult thing about 0.45-percent improvements is that because the change is small, I stop believing that it’s there at all.
Jun 30
I found this post, CreditBloggers: Got a Plan to Reduce Your Credit Card Debt? Keep it to Yourself!, an interesting contrast to this one, The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You’ll Ever Need. The first post suggests that when you tell others about a goal, you get feeling that you’ve already achieved the goal and are less likely to work toward reaching it. The second suggests using pressure from others to motivate you in reaching your goals.
I suspect that these are both true. Some of it is a matter of personality. I generally find it easier to pursue goals that I don’t tell people about. It seems that as soon as I tell someone about my goal, I stop pursuing it. On the other hand, when pursuit of a goal is part of group’s reason for being others can really help motivate you. When I was practicing Aikido in Ottawa, knowing that the rest of the class would be there definitely helped me get out of bed for some of those early morning practices.
My rule of thumb If the goal is part of a group’s purpose, share your goal with the group. Don’t share your goal with people who are not involved in helping you reach it.
(First post found via BoingBoing)
This post of Seth Godin’s Priming the pump of efficiency talks about the hit your efficiency takes when you switch to a new way of doing doings. On a short-term scale or a medium-term scale, you would be much better off sticking to your current well-known, well-polished system. On a long term scale, if you don’t change you’ll be worse off than someone who does.
It’s this short-term loss that I find to be a big obstacle in changing myself. I’m losing my half-hour of sleep, or the taste of sweet food, or a comfortable mental pattern and in return I feel worse off than I was before.
I find that what works best for me in getting through that valley is small steps. Some people find that a radical change works best: “I will not eat another chocolate bar”. For me, a slow change seems to lead to longer lasting results: “I ate 5 chocolate bars last week, this week I’ll only eat 4″.
I’m hoping that as I get older and wiser I find better ways of getting through the times when change means short term loss in pursuit of long term gains.
Larísa has a beautiful post on her justification for playing WoW, Happily building my sandcastle. Her argument is that WoW is a hobby much like any other. It’s not about economic gain, or self-improvement, or getting a hot date, or any other extrinsic reward, it’s for its own sake. People don’t build sandcastles for the rewards, they build sandcastles because it’s fun.
My primary hobby is always something I’m obsessed with. I’ve changed hobbies a number of times: reading, computer games, board games, martial arts, and so on. In every case the hobby has consumed most of my free time (and some of my non-free time). My dad and my brother are the same way.
It is in my hobbies that I manage to truly live in the moment and that is worth a lot to me.
I like this idea Increase Productivity with the 3 Open Project Method. It might be a good way to go on days when I have a couple of projects to get through, especially when I’m having trouble getting motivated.
Dec 29
Well, I made it 201 days of doing about 20 minutes of dedicated exercise per day. I went from June 10 to December 27, 2008. What broke the chain was discouragement.
With the holidays here my regular routine has been broken and I haven’t been feeling up to doing much. Doing the hundred pushups has been very discouraging. I made it up to 60 pushups with a few snags but nothing serious. I’ve been stuck at sixty pushups for about a month now and I just can’t seem to make it past that. I did my exhaustion test yesterday and once again only hit 60. I kept putting off giving it another shot and woke up this morning realizing I’d only done about 10 minutes of exercise yesterday.
I plan to resume my daily exercise, I’m just not sure if I’m going to continue the hundred pushups program. Doing the pushups is starting to hurt a lot, which is not at all what I want from a fitness program. The lack of progress is frustrating. Maybe I’ll pause my hundred pushups for now, do another exercise program for a while, then think about coming back to it later.
Nov 10
Project Euler Exercises Your Mind with Mathematical Problems looks like something I’d like to check out. Heinlein once suggested mathematics as a great way to fill empty hours. I don’t have so many of those any more, but I have studied various bits of math on my own to fill up wasted time productively. Maybe this can be one of my projects this winter.
Oct 30
I’m making progress on my push ups. I’m up to 31 now. Only 69 to go!
The Art of Manliness has a good post on How to Write a Thank You Note. I’ve been thinking about doing this more as one of my projects. I’m trying to gradually ramp up with self-improvement stuff as I think I’m likelier to stick with it that way.
Oct 22
Every two weeks or so I buy a pack of Coke Zero to drink. Sadly, I’m going to have to quit doing that. For some reason it seems to make me twitchy and irritable. Ah well, with winter coming fast a hot cup of tea is a fully viable alternative.
Oct 12
My daily workout program has been going well. I’ve stuck with it for over 18 weeks now without missing a day. For a change of pace, I’m going to do hundred pushups program for my strength workout. My initial test was a little embarrassing at only 19 pushups – I’d been up to almost 50 about 4 years ago. Ah well, I’ll get there.
The reasons I chose the hundred pushups are that it requires minimal equipment, it has a definite, achievable goal, and it fits beautifully with my current workout schedule.
Larisa’s post on Why Do I WoW? struck a lot of chords with me.
Like her, I really wasn’t that into team play growing up. I still find myself repelled by most group activities. Doing things with a team and enjoying it gives me some perspective on those who love doing things with other people.
The way WoW makes self-improvement fun is also a critical part of my enjoyment of the game. The Ferrett had a post way back when about wishing that leveling skills in real life were as quantifiable as leveling skills in an RPG. (Sorry I can’t find the specific post.) In WoW it’s easy to see when your character has gotten better at something – a number scrolls across your screen. Once you reach max levels and you’re not getting those number you can start setting specific goals pretty easily, e.g. "I will not let the warlock pull off of me this evening." The goals are achievable and concrete.
Having a world to explore is a lot of fun. That was one of my favorite things about moving to a new area in real life – finding all the neat new places that are out there. I’m not likely to move soon so WoW gives a bit of an outlet to my wanderlust.
I wouldn’t identify the kicks as a big reason for me to play WoW. A big crit can be fun and it’s exhilarating to down a new boss, but I don’t think that’s enough to keep pulling me back.
Socializing is another of the big reasons I play WoW. Many eons ago I told a college friend that I would love to do my socializing via typing on a computer network. Now I can! As a bonus, I get to play games while socializing and games have always been one of my favorite ways of connecting with people.
I’ve identified other reasons that I play WoW in previous posts, but I’d have to say that I strongly empathize with four out of Larisa’s five.
Micro Persuasion: Become an Expert with the Power of Deliberate Practice gives the tried and true response to becoming better at something – Practice! The notable addition is that you track what you’re doing. I know I tend to be more motivated to keep going if I keep track of what I’ve learned.
Motivation: Commit a Habit to Paper to Break It
You have to write down your goal. Write a start date. Write an end date (30 days is a good time frame). Write down exactly what you’re going to do. Write down how you’re going to be accountable, what your rewards are, what the obstacles are, what your triggers are. More on these below. Main thing: put it on paper and stick to the plan (don’t file the plan in your inbox, you piler you!
I’ve found this works remarkably well to keep me motivated. What I’ve done is mash up the Franklin Virtue Chart and Seinfeld’s motivational calendar into something that works for me. Now I need to bring it out of the few areas where I apply it into other places where I could use some improvement.
Bad habits cannot just be thrown out the window, but gently coaxed down the stairs step by step and then out the door.
—Mark Twain
PocketMod: The Free Recyclable Personal Organizer looks like it might be useful. I liked the Lifehacker suggestions.