It’s easy to look at the moments of key progress. When your income is growing, when you’re finally losing weight, or when you ace that difficult final exam. But I think it’s more important to focus on the moments of zero growth. Where you’ve gone to the gym for months without seeing improvements, studied for […]
Don’t Burn Your Ships
Several years ago I heard a story about the importance of commitment to motivation: A general sailed over to an enemy country with his army. While the army slept, he burned the ships down. When they awoke, he told them, since they had no way to get back, they would have to conquer the enemy […]
Aggressive Learning
If you want to succeed, pick an easy target. If you want to improve, pick an impossibly hard target. Success in a goal and improvement are often opposite paths, so if you aren’t clear on which you’re trying to pursue, you may end up failing at both. I have a habit for getting in over […]
Steady, Incremental Improvement is a Myth
If you’re want to double your income from $4000 per month to $8000 over a year, what is more likely: Increasing your monthly income by $350 each month. Spending 11 months to go from $4000 per month to $4050, then getting to $8000 in the last month. I’d say that the second, although it seems […]