Is Winning Two out of Three OR Failing One out of Three That Much Different
The obvious answer is that winning two out of three is better. BUT when you re-read the title of this column you quickly realize that they are the same.
One of the ideas that I have stolen from James Clear is to not allow yourself to fail two days in a row. Powerful!!!
Suppose you are on a diet and you slip. You fail miserably. You are o for 1. The next day you have a choice. If the next day you succeed then you move up to 1 out of 2. The secret is to not allow yourself to fail two days in a row. So on the third day, you succeed again and it moves you up to 2 out of 3. You are at 66%. It is not a hundred but you are better than 50% of the time doing what you said you would do. Next try to keep the streak and go for 3 out of 4, and so on.
By not allowing yourself to slip two times in a row you are so much more likely to succeed. Impressive.
On a different front…reading
I often recommend books to people based on our conversations. It pleases me when the person takes the recommendation and purchases the book. At times I even gift the book to them for that person to benefit from the ideas in it that were relevant to our conversation and potentially their struggle.
Recently I was speaking with a head of a sales and marketing book and recommended the book The Right It. A powerful book that teaches us how to decide whether an idea is worth pursuing by establishing skin in the game quickly.
After he bought the book, I have periodically asked if he has read it. He showed interest to read it by buying it BUT has not been committed to reading the book. Like many people, he has a long reading list and no time.
SO I offered a different strategy to him. Every night before you go to sleep just read a chapter out of any book. If we use the advice that James Clear offered, this would mean roughly 240 chapters per year. WOW!!!
BUT what if we failed and only managed to read 1 out of every 3 nights? That is roughly 120 chapters. If we assume 10 chapters per book that places us at 12 books per year level. Impressive!!!
I am amazed by how few people read after they graduate from college. I have seen statistics that 58% of people who graduated from college never read another book in their field. Sad!!!
Imagine being examined by a 30-year career doctor whose knowledge is based on what they learned 30 years ago and who has not read anything new since. How comfortable do you feel with their knowledge? Maybe that is why they call it medical practice and not medical science?
I strongly urge you to develop this nightly habit. You will find it relaxing to pull yourself away from the phone(I do sometimes read on my phone) BUT more importantly your subconscious mind will have a whole night to process what you have read. Powerful!!!
The idea behind this column is to encourage you to think for yourself and realizing that we are all humans that will fail so we need to develop strategies for minimizing the damage of those failures. Minimizing is different from becoming risk-averse. Risk-averse simply puts the brakes on doing anything new you have never done. The opposite side is to keep our successes going as long as possible and if a failure occurs being able to bounce back up quickly.
My four cents…
