Well, okay. That might be a bit dramatic, since my vice isn’t exactly one that you’d typically deem problematic. But the point still stands that I have this … thing for ideas.

You may have guessed that already. After all, my about page does say that “I am wont to [have] my interest drift around from thing to thing, idea to idea and place to place.”

But here’s the thing. I really love coming up with ideas — solutions to problems, new ways of doing things, creative brainstorming, ways of explaining, etc. The problem (if you want to call it a problem) is that my interest drops dramatically after the initial idea moment.

The Lifespan of My Ideas

Let me give you a diagram that demonstrates the normal flow of how my interest levels progress whenever I have an idea …

The Lifespan of My Ideas

In the diagram above, you’ll notice that I’ve labeled the phases I go through whenever I have an idea, and I’ve also highlighted three “bailout opportunities”. These “bailout opportunities” are points in the lifespan of my idea that I typically leave it behind, either because I’m bored with it, or because I’ve finished the course of my thought processes.

Bailouts are distinct from crash and burn, by the way. Crash and burn happens when I stick with an idea that I really should have bailed on — usually this occurs when I believe (or am told) that I have to finish something. Really big research projects in school tended to get me to this point, for example.

But let’s focus on the positives from the diagram for a moment, shall we?

As you can see, what excites me about ideas is the ideas themselves. My interest and excitement levels spike way up when I’m in the process of developing the ideas, fleshing them out, and figuring out ways that they could work. I’m not as big on the implementation — my brain seems to have an auto-shut-off as soon as I have clarity of vision, and I lose interest rapidly after that point.

Being Done Is Up To You

Some of you are probably nodding your heads at this point — it sounds familiar, right? Others cannot conceive of getting so far into the details of an idea and then not wanting to see it carried out to completion. And still others are probably sitting there thinking “you’re just lazy; you don’t want to do the work, so you just quit when it gets tough!”

Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with the last one. I don’t have a problem doing something that needs to be done (this is how I finished my honors thesis, for example).

And I don’t really find it all that difficult to do the actual implementation — I’m actually notoriously quick at picking things up, and can often do things in a fraction of the time it would take others.

The more I read and research, the more I realize that some people are wired differently — they (we!) have a different “completion” point than what someone else might consider done.

For us, the problem is solved when we understand it, or when we see the pattern, or when we’ve applied it to one situation, or something like that. We may not have actually built the system, but we know we could if we had to.

This type of approach is a hallmark of what Barbara Sher calls the “scanner” personality, and what Margaret Lobenstein calls the “renaissance soul”.

It’s a description of all of us who are pulled in a million different directions by a million different ideas and interests.

And there isn’t anything wrong with it!

Embracing an Earlier End-Point

Consider Leonardo da Vinci, the classic example of a renaissance man. He was a painter, yes, but he was also a scientist, philosopher, inventor, observer and more. In a lot of ways, da Vinci was an idea-man. He was endlessly curious and was endlessly investigating new directions and ideas.

Here’s one thing about da Vinci that we don’t often consider, though. Da Vinci didn’t finish everything he started — at least, not by modern standards! He may have sketched and planned the first flying machine, but he never attempted to start a flying-machine-business. In fact, he never even built one.

We may know him best for his paintings, but he actually was more into drawing — he kept whole books filled with sketches and drawings of anything that caught his eye. Some of those sketches were finished. Many weren’t.

Was da Vinci a quitter because he didn’t monetize his flying machine, or a failure because most of his sketches just sat in his notebooks where few would ever see them?

Not many people would think so; instead, we recognize da Vinci as being multitalented — he was remarkable not because he finished things to others’ standards of completion, but because he pursued his many interests to his own measure.

Wasting Away

One of the solutions proposed by Sher in Refuse to Choose is for scanners to create a “Scanner Daybook”. It’s a tool by which you can let your imagination and brain cells run wild with whatever fascinates you in the moment. No one ever has to see it, unless you want them to. You can write or doodle or do whatever you want, and help fulfill your minds wanderlust that way.

The part about not sharing your daybook makes intuitive sense to me. After all, if you want to really explore your ideas and not feel pressure to make them conform to someone else’s standards, then privacy is a good way to go. But part of me has always had the nagging thought — isn’t it a shame to let these ideas just sit in a notebook?

I don’t claim to be a da Vinci; far from it. I have very little expectation that if I keep notebooks full of musings and random ideas that a couple of hundred years after my death, people will clamor to see them.

So what do you (and I) do with all of these ideas?  If no one ever has a chance to act on them (because I sure don’t want to!), what good is it? Isn’t it a shame to let them go to waste?

For me, I think in many ways it is. Just because I don’t have a desire to implement all my ideas doesn’t make them bad. In my own humble opinion, I tend to think that on occasion, I do have one or two good ones that might be useful to someone, somewhere. Somewhere in those ideas, there might be some value I can provide.

Introducing the Idea Factory

Last night, as I lay awake unable to sleep, a thought occurred to me (yes, I had an idea — I see the irony). 

The answer, it turns out, is simple. Rather than hoarding all of my ideas, once I’m done with them, why not share them?

If I don’t plan on developing my ideas further, then why not put them out there, in case someone does want to build on them? Call it paying it forward, calling it creating and delivering value, or just call it sharing, it seems to make sense.

For that matter, even if I do eventually come back to some of my ideas, it doesn’t matter. I can still build upon my previous thoughts and develop them if I really want to.

Nothing stops me from revisiting old ideas, even if others have picked up on them. In fact, by sharing and discussing my ideas, it may rejuvenate my interest as well as providing a really cool idea-stimulus for the “implementers” in the crowd.

So with that in mind, look for Sententia to get a new sub-section in the near future: The Idea Factory. I don’t know what shape it will take, or how exactly it will look and work. I do have some leanings — it will remain integrated into the main site, for example — but not everything has settled in my mind yet. 

The plus side is that with the way the site is currently set up, the implementation of whatever I decide will be so simple, that bailout shouldn’t be needed, and crash-and-burn won’t be a result :-)

Now, I’m not talking about sharing all of the ridiculous ideas (although I suppose that could be amusing — and trust me, there are some ridiculous ones), and I make no promises that anything that goes into the Idea Factory will be even half-baked.

But maybe, like the gems in da Vinci’s notebook, someone somewhere will find use for a crazy sketch of a new flying machine.

The Key to Growth is Choice

Photo by Don Solo

It seems so simple, and yet, it’s something that so many of us struggle with.

A huge part of the struggle happens because we’ve had choices turn out badly in the past. If experience is the best teacher, then experience seems to teach us that making choices can potentially be a very good — or very bad — thing.

The result? Our ability to make choices hinges on how comfortable we are with our ability to accurately predict the outcome of our choices. If you are relatively confident that choice A will lead to outcome B, you will be more confident in making that choice. If you aren’t, then making the decision will seem much harder.

If you want to grow and change, eventually you have to master the decision-making process. And if part of the problem is that you’re not confident in your predictive abilities, then it would make sense that what you need to do first is work on the accuracy of your predictions. As you become more confident in your prediction-making-ability, you also become more confident in your ability to make the “right” decision — which will then make decision-making and growth come more easily.

Artificial Intelligence in Software

Our brains actually behave quite a bit like a piece of computer software: based on certain inputs (experiences), the software generates a set of outputs (predictions). If you give it insufficient data, you’ll get less accurate results. Even beyond simple input-output, our brains actually function like the “bad guys” in modern video games: with adaptive artificial intelligence.

In traditional video games, the artificial intelligence displayed by computer characters (NPCs: non-player characters) is very limited. If you shoot at an enemy, it will shoot back. If you run into a room where there are enemy characters, they will attack.

More modern (”cutting-edge”) video games feature an emerging technology known as adaptive artificial intelligence. In these games, an enemy sharp-shooter might adapt to your firing patterns, or they might adjust their tactics to take advantages of what they learn your weaknesses to be.

In developing this type of software, programmers and researchers are attempting to replicate what the human brain does naturally: use knowledge acquired from prior experiences to anticipate the outcome of future choices.

Predictive Patterns

Every time something happens in our lives, our brains file that information away for use in future situations.

You can see this most clearly by watching a child learn something new. When that child is learning how to walk, he or she may lean too far backward and fall down. The mind takes this information and makes a note not to lean so far backward in the future.

As we grow older, our brains have built up quite a large “database” of experiences from which to draw upon. As we continue to make choices, the results of those choices (both large and small, conscious and subconscious) are added to our knowledge bases, and are factored in when we make decisions in the future.

This “knowledge database” is the means by which our brains categorize and generalize experiences, and creates predictive patterns. Because the brain remembers the outcomes in general terms (you may not remember exactly when or how you learned to walk, but you still know how to keep your centre of gravity in the right place), it naturally identified commonalities and patterns.

As a result, we are not only are we able to predict outcomes based on “what happened before”, but based on what we expect will happen — our brains are natural simulators. It’s how you know not to put your hand into a pot of boiling water; even if you’ve never done it before, you expect that the outcome would be painful, and so you don’t do it.

Predictions and Expectations

In 1738, famous polymath Daniel Bernoulli suggested that we calculate expectations in the following way:

Expected value = Odds of gain × Value of gain

In general terms, this simplified formula forms a basis of statistics and probabilities. Say you were offered a bet: for a buy-in of $100, you get to flip one-thousand quarters, and you get to keep any of them that turn up heads.

Ignoring the fact that you would be incredibly tired of flipping coins by about coin 200, and that you probably wouldn’t want to be lugging around hundreds of quarters, according to Bernoulli’s formula we should take the bet. The odds of a coin turning up heads are 50%, or 0.5. The best possible potential gain would be if every quarter turned up heads, thereby giving you $250. So the expected value of the coin-flip game is:

Expected value = $125 = 0.5 × $250

Our expected value for the coin-flip game is greater than the initial bet, and so statistically, the bet is a good one to take.

We do the same thing for non-numeric decisions as well. Our mental simulators evaluate the odds of one outcome or another. Then, considering how much potential benefit the outcome(s) have, the simulators give us an emotional response: yes, this is a good decision and will likely turn out in our favor, or no, this is not likely to turn out positively.

When Expected and Actual Value Don’t Match

As we’ve all experienced, sometimes, our choices don’t turn out for the best. Going back to the coin-game example, this makes sense. While on average, we would win $125 from the game, it is possible that we would have bad luck and flip only a handful of quarters. In other words it’s possible that expected value and actual value just won’t match up.

A really common example of this is going to see a movie that you’re really excited about. Your brain evaluates the odds of completely enjoying the movie to be quite high — say 80%. But that still leaves a 20% chance that you won’t enjoy the movie. So while you were really excited about your decision to see the movie, you may still leave the theater saying “I just spent $15 to see that?!?”

In this type of case, the expected value has been calculated exactly right, but that doesn’t guarantee the outcome — so the expectation doesn’t match up with reality. While we’re not thrilled with these outcomes, often times we’re “okay” with them, because somehow we subconsciously understand that we made the right choice, it just didn’t work out this time.

Even though it didn’t lead to the best outcome, the experience is not useless and our brains don’t throw the result away.  Remember that our brains calculate odds based on patterns stored in our knowledge bases (our memories and acquired knowledge). Both the choice and the result are added to our memories, and the next time we make a related choice, we will factor in the “new information.”

Need More Input

New information can only go so far, though. Because we are human, with limited experiences, we very often don’t have the ability to accurately predict the odds for our situation. Especially when we have limited information, our predictive powers can be “off”.

Consider the following example; I’m going to give you a set of numbers, and you’re going to predict the next three numbers in the series…

3, 5, 7

What’s the pattern? If you’re like most people, you’ll identify those numbers as “odd”, and your prediction will be 9, 11, 13. If you’re more mathematically inclined, you might think that I’m talking about prime numbers, and answer 11, 13, 17. But in either case, you would be wrong, because I’ve only given you limited information.

What if I now gave you the next three numbers as well?

3, 5, 7, 13, 15, 17

By taking in more information, you could correctly guess the next values to be 23, 25, 27. But the thing is, without that further information, you would have been hard-pressed to make an accurate prediction. Just like with those computer baddies, more data leads to better predictions.

Type Mismatch: Lots of Bad Information

Even when we’ve taken in a whole bunch of data, we’re still talking about predictions and possibilities. And as we all know, even when we spend a lot of time putting thought and care into making the “right choice”, it doesn’t always work out. For all of our thinking, our simulators don’t always come up with the optimal solution.Sometimes, the new information that has gone into our brain-powered pattern recognizer isn’t representative of actual fact.

Let’s apply this to a “real life” problem: winning the lottery.

Statistically, the odds of actually winning are so miniscule, you may as well be tearing your money up into bits and throwing it into the garbage. So why do people continue to buy lottery tickets? A big part of the problem is that their decision making process is based only on a partial data set. Think about it — how many times have you heard in the news about the latest “big winner”?

Now — how many times have you heard about all of the people who didn’t win? Of all the millions and millions of tickets that are bought week in, and week out, you only ever hear about the winners! That’s a lot of new information reinforcing the idea that you too could win. And if you were to sit down and listen to every person tell you the outcome of their lottery ticket purchas? You would spend years listening to people say “I didn’t win” before you’d hear a single person say “I won”.

The point is, if you only encounter one type of experience (positive or negative) that reinforce the same message, you’ll always get the same feedback — whether or not that feedback is accurate or not. And that feedback can skew your perceptions of reality pretty drastically.

Fine-Tuning Your Predictive Intelligence

I hope it’s becoming apparent that unless you continually give your brain new stimulus and information, you won’t be able to increase your predictive ability. You never know when you’ll experience something that won’t fit into your previous patterns — something that would hugely increase your predictive intelligence. On the flip side, if you want to become better at predicting outcomes, your only real option is to experience a wide variety of optins.

In other words, the only way to improve your ability to make the right choices is to make choices that could turn out badly.

“Oh gee, that sounds like fun,” I hear you saying sarcastically.

Here’s the thing: making the wrong choices is still better than just staying the same all the time (”not making a choice”). At least by making the choice, you will have learned something — and you’ll be more empowered to make a more informed choice the next time. I strongly believe that we do not make mistakes; we simply have opportunities to learn. If you look at it that way, then there really is no way to lose.

A common saying in my family is “this too shall pass”. The not-so-good outcomes? They’ll pass. The good outcomes? They’ll pass too. But the knowledge you’ve gained in either case will stay with you. Your predictive intelligence will adapt and develop as you continually feed it new inputs. And you’ll reap the rewards in the long term.

On the plus side, having an extra few days off has helped me almost fend off this cold, as well as gave me a chance to catch up on a bunch of reading — as evidenced by the somewhat more lengthy list of links this week.

If you would like to pass on anything you think I might be interested in, post the link as a comment to this thread! I’m always looking for new things to explore. Note that comments on this site are moderated, especially if they contain links, so if it doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry!

Made Me Think

2009 Focus - Intimate Relationships and Polyamorous Relationship Q&A (from Personal Development for Smart People). If you’re afraid of a little controversy, don’t like thinking outside of social norms, or want everyone to live “normally”, you probably gave up on Steve Pavlina long ago. But if you haven’t already, there’s a lot of things in these two posts to get you thinking. Since the beginning of the New Year, Steve’s been spending some time on his blog explaining his next direction in personal growth: in the area of relationships. I know I’ll be watching and reading.

Bathtubs, Lightening Bolts, and the Myth of Writer’s Block (from Copyblogger). I think I’ve read about a thousand posts, articles and books about how to get past writer’s block (and other creative blocks) by “just doing it”. This is the first one that has gone so far as to call Writer’s Block a myth, though. And I think it’s an accurate description — if we say that we can “get past” writer’s block, we’re still acknowledging that it exists (and thereby giving it power over us). If you instead just get down to work instead of worrying about the block, you’d be much better off.

Why Mood Boards Matter (from Web Designer Depot). I have a confession to make. When I feel like turning my brain off and just watch some TV, one of the first places I’ll go is the design shows on HGTV. I’ve jealously seen how interior and exterior designers can pull together mood boards that just. look. fabulous. But the idea of using mood boards for other types of design (like websites)? This article was a “duh” moment for me — it’s a great idea, not only from the designer’s perspective but also from the clients’.

The Best of Get Rich Slowly (2008 Edition) (from Get Rich Slowly). Of all the year-end round-ups that I read, this one was my favorite. J.D. is one of my favorite bloggers — not only because he’s a great personal finance blogger, but because he always finds a way to tie it in to the bigger pictures. His annual round-up reflects that, and I highly recommend clicking through and reading his featured articles

Related Reading

Maybe it’s not so surprising, but there were a whole lot of posts on setting goals rather than resolutions for this New Year’s. I guess great minds do think alike! Here’s a link to some of the ones that I came across; I won’t give them each a whole lot of description since many of the ideas are repeated throughout. But each one brings a unique and slightly different perspective on the subject.

1. What Will You Learn This Year? (from The Simple Dollar) — this is my favorite one of the lot. What a great approach!
2. Why You Should Do New Year’s Resolutions All Year Round (but don’t call them that) (from Retire At 40)
3. New Year’s Resolutions? Not Me! (from Early Retirement Extreme)
4. How to Be Damned Serious About Your New Year’s Goals (from Rock Your Day)
5. And of course, Never Set Another Resolution, Again and It’s Not About Self-Discipline: 10 Tips for Reaching Your Goals from yours truly

Also, related to my article on our frugal Christmas party, The Simple Dollar described how they frugally celebrated the New Year — more great ideas, and even a controversy about the ethics of BYOB which broke out in the comments!

Sententia’s Best Of 2008?

The last week it seems as though every website that I follow has had at least one post dedicated to their year in review (be it personal or site related). I debated writing a best-of for Sententia, but it feels a little goofy when you consider that I’ve only been actively writing since the beginning of December!

That being said, 2008 did leave me a lot to be grateful for, both on the site and off. So here’s some of my “best of 2008″ moments, in case you care :-)

• A new job in higher education where I have a chance to grow and learn, both professionally and personally. I work in a hugely supportive environment, with great co-workers, and I’ve already had a chance to take on leadership roles which have been both challenging and rewarding.
• Learning a tonne. At home, if I had to identify the one area that I’ve learned most about this year, it would be about money and finances. I was always pretty good with money; I graduated two university degrees without debt, have always paid off my credit card every month, always spent less than I earned, and put money away. But this year, I pushed myself to learn about things like frugality, basic investing theory and most excitingly, financial independance. Careful planning allowed J and I to purchase our first home in August, while still making major contributions to our short- and long-term savings.  The two most valuable books I read on PF this year are the two classics: Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (I read the previous edition), and The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio.
• But even more importantly, I’ve had a chance to learn more about myself. This year, I learned to be comfortable being a scanner and embracing all of my wide interests. For example, I got to work on a marketing project, communications officer, lead designer, specialist, consultant and more; talk about perfect opportunity. Embracing my “scanner-ness” is also what led me back to Sententia…
• And of course, most recently, the relaunch of Sententia has been pretty exciting. In the month since the official relaunch in early December, nearly 200 people have encountered the site and read some of my musings. Those numbers may not be huge in the world of blogging, but I’m not after huge numbers — all I care about is having a chance to share with you all. So with that in mind, here’s a quick highlight of my top 3 favorite posts of 2008:
  • A Scanner’s Journey
  • Why We Don’t Choose (And Why We Really Should)
  • Education is Not For Everyone

How about you — what was your “best of 2008″?

Photo by Thomas Hawk

But, like I said, simply changing your vocabulary from resolution to goal on its own isn’t going to help you lose that weight, stop smoking, exercise more, or whatever other changes you might want to see in your life. Even when you phrase your goals as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) ones, you aren’t guaranteed success. There still is the matter of actually following-through on said goal, and that’s where a lot of people get stuck.

Goals Aren’t That Mysterious

Reaching goals is actually very simple — far more so than people let themselves believe. The key to success in reaching your goals is to make good goals, and then take action on them.

Now you may read that, and feel like closing your browser and walking away. After all, that key includes no magic bullet, no wonder pill, no switch to flip. Yes, reaching goals is as simple as making them and then acting upon them. No, there isn’t any other way to fulfil your goals. But there are ways to make it easier.

So, regardless of the situation, here are some practical tips that you can use to help you get the most out of your goals (New Years, or otherwise).

Tip #1: Make the Choice

If you’ve read some of my recent musings on psychology, happiness and choice, you’ll know that a key to making effective change in your life is to just go out, and choose to do it. The process of making a committed decision is what a lot of people confuse with “self-discipline” — they think that they have to have self-discipline to go out running every day, but in reality, they just need to make a choice to do so.

if you make a decision to achieve a goal, then make it. Don’t waffle back and forth, or you undermine your ability to complete the goal. Similarly, when it comes to actually following through on your goal, don’t let yourself wonder if you want to or not. Just realize that you made a choice to do it, and as a result, not following through is not an option. Don’t give yourself an out; just make the irreversible choice. You’ll be happier that way, too.

Tip #2: Get Clear

Getting clear about your goal is not only about making sure you know what your goal is, but also being clear on why you want it. What’s your motivation? When you care about your goal, and you are motivated by reasons that have huge importance to you, it will be easier to follow through.

One of the best stories I’ve heard that demonstrates this is from Trent at The Simple Dollar (link to story). You really do have to read the story in his own words, but to bring the point back here — Trent made a huge financial turnaround, and the reason he was able to do it was because he was and is extremely clear on the why:

I went into my son’s room, closed the door behind me, and sat down in the rocking chair across from his crib. He was so tiny laying there, less than six months old, and he was sleeping so peacefully there without a worry in the world…

I started trying everything I could get my hands on to see what would work, and every time I was tempted to spend money, I thought about my son.

It was not easy. It still isn’t. But all I have to do is remember the pain of that day - and then think about the promises I made to my son during that long night - and I realize what decisions are really the right ones.

What are your reasons for desiring the goals you want? If you feel in your heart that your goals are worth pursuing and you’re clear on your why, your reasons will be enough to keep you going.

Tip #3: Create a Now-Goal

One of the reasons that goals feel so hard to reach is that the focus is almost always on the end result. Lose ten pounds, stop smoking, spend more time with the kids… all of these things are measured by an end result.

The problem is that we don’t live in the future. We can imagine the future all we want, but you still have to live in the present. This is why people yo-yo on and off of diets. They eat food that they hate in order to drop weight, but as soon as they do (or maybe even before), they get tired of delaying their gratification and cave — and grab the nearest piece of chocolate cake.

Take a health-related example: a “future-goal” would be “eat healthier,” and the diet “de jour” might involve eating brussel sprouts, or whatever your least favorite food might be. How likely are you to realize that goal? But what if you transformed your goal into a goal that you can feel good about both in the future and the present: a “now-goal” could be to “have a serving of fruit with breakfast because I really do like the way that fruit tastes, and I have more energy when I eat fruit to start the day.”

If you create now-goals and focus on things that have an impact on the way you feel right now — you’ll be more likely to continue, because you’re enjoying the process of the goal. Instant gratification doesn’t have to be a bad thing!

The easiest goals are often those which not only have a positive ultimate outcome, but which also have a positive impact on the present moment. Creating goals that feel good while you’re in the process of completing them will succeed, because you’ll want to continue doing them.

Tip #4: Build Your Plan — Backwards

A military squad that goes into battle without plans and tactics will be defeated. A sports team that doesn’t strategize will lose. We know the value of planning ahead, but for some reason when it comes to goals, we often forget to do so.

Part of the problem is that many of us have a hard time making plans, and when we do make plans, they’re so full of holes that we wonder why we even bothered. But if you want to make plans that will actually get you from A to B without all the difficulty, start with the end point and work backwards.

In other words, start from your goal. Ask yourself, “could I achieve this right now, this very moment?” If the answer is no, then ask yourself “what do I need in order to be able to achieve that?”  Then repeat, until the answer to the first question is “yes”.

By doing working backwards from your goal to where you’re at now, you’ll have created an actionable plan. You will know that after the completion of each step, you will have everything you need to immediately start in on the next. Since you have no excuse to delay and no reason to stop and say “now what”, you’ll be able to take advantage of the forward momentum and press ever onward toward your goal.

Tip #5: Keep It Manageable

If you’re anything like me, you tend to go through cycles when it comes to personal develoment. For me, I’ll get absolutely on-fire when I read a book or a great post. And I’ll start to think of all the aspects of my life that could stand to see some growth (truthfully, all of them, but I think that’s true for everyone if we really are honest with ourselves). But the problem is that I get so fired up about so many different things, that I’ll end up not really doing any of them.

What I’ve learned is that the old adage really is true: don’t bite off more than you can chew. Making goals a couple at a time will be far more effective over the long haul than making dozens simultaneously.

Making smaller goals is also a key to being successful in reaching your goals, for a couple of reasons. First, small goals give you confidence and strengthen your goal-achieving “muscle”. Second, small goals give you momentum because they’re over quickly and can snowball into bigger goals. Creating sub-goals, as described in Tip #4, is a great way to get started on this process.

Don’t feel bad, or like you’re not doing enough, if you only make one goal at a time and its something really small. There are no such thing as goals too small or too few; after all, even if you only complete one small goal, that’s still one more than you would have completed otherwise.

Tip #6: Use the Power of Habits

Setting a goal that’s contrary to your habits won’t get you very far. You’re much better off if you work at things the other way around, and empower yourself by creating new habits that support your goals.

You probably don’t have to stop and think very much when it comes time to read something; “how to read” has become so engrained in your brain that you don’t have to stop and think about it. You see some words written and you habitually and automatically read them. (A note: doing something habitually isn’t the same as doing it mindlessly. See Tip #3 :-))

Now consider if eating better, or working out, or not smoking, or spending time with your loved ones, or whatever else was something you did habitually. Wouldn’t it be easier to be in the habit of preparing and eating a serving of veggies with dinner every day, than trying to force yourself to eat those carrots every day?

The best thing about creating new habits is that it only takes about 28 days to do it. So you can try something new for a month, which is much easier than trying to make a huge change “forever”; it’s easier to keep going, for example, if you can say “just 15 days to go!” Then when the month is done, you can either quit (if it didn’t work for you) or enjoy your new habit.

Tip #7: Enlist the Support of Community

A lot of reasons people have a hard time reaching their goals is because they’re trying to make significant life changes alone, when their lives aren’t spent alone. Think of how many people you encounter on a daily basis, and how much they influence you (and vice versa!)

Smoking is a great example of this — if you still go out on your coffee breaks with your smoking buddies, you’re going to find it a whole lot more tempting to have a cigarette. And if your buddies keep inviting you to come out with them, it can be really tempting to go out. You’re far better off to tell your friends what you’re doing. Good friends will help keep you honest and on track.

Even just telling people about your goal — even if you’re not relying on them for help, and even if you don’t really know them — can be empowering as well. There’s something about sharing something with others, either by verbalizing it or by putting it in writing for others to read, that keeps us more accountable.

Whatever your method, it will be much easier to keep on track if you don’t try to do it alone.

Tip #8: Don’t Save It All for New Year’s Day

It’s December 29th, you’ve got a pile of goodies and cookies sitting in front of you, but your body has been asking for a reprieve from the sweets. But… January 1st is right around the corner, so you eat the cookies and spend half the night wondering why you did. Does this sound familiar?

Goal setting ought not be a once-per-year endeavour. For one, it encourages large goals that are too unwieldy and impractical (see Tip #5). By waiting until some auspicious occasion like the beginning of a new year, the natural tendency is to make big goals with big impact. On January 1, the problem is compounded, since we tend to look at the coming year.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with setting a focus for the upcoming year, or even with having a high-level overview of some directions you’d like to take. But those aren’t going to make the best goals — it would be far better to make a series of smaller goals that match up with that focus or overview, instead.

The other problem with waiting for a particular date is that it basically encourages lying to yourself. By saying that you want something to be true in your life, but only after a certain day, you’re saying that you don’t really want it that badly. And if a goal doesn’t excite you, you won’t be encouraged to work towards it.

Tip #9: Evaluate and Re-Evaluate

Just like anything else, you get better at reaching goals the more you practice. As you become increasingly successful at reaching your goals, you’ll find things that work for you (as well as those that don’t). As they say, “practice makes perfect”.

A great tool for reflection is a change journal, in which you write down your goal, and then every day make a note of how you are progressing toward your goal and how the pursuit of your goal made you feel that day. Once your goal has been reached, you can reflect on the whole process, and note any things that you might do differently in the future.

There is great value to be had in evaluating goals while you’re striving for them. Sometimes, you may be partway through your action plan when you realize that your goal has shifted, or that you have uncovered something more important. Other times, you may realize that you’re trying to force yourself to do something that’s not really a good fit for you — something that you thought would benefit you is actually harming you.

Throughout your goal-reaching journey, it’s important to keep in touch with yourself (Tip #3). You ought not use it as an excuse to give up when things don’t immediately go your way — remember that you made the choice to strive for this goal (Tip #1) — but noting how you feel while you’re in the process of working toward your goal can be a great way to identify things you might try differently in the future.

It can also be very encouraging to look back and reflect upon all the goals you’ve successfully completed — when you realize what you’ve been able to accomplish, you also realize how much potential you have to accomplish more. Even goals that you don’t reach (or that you don’t reach in the way you expected) can be opportunities for reflection. Evaluation of your previous goals, successful and not, can be a valuable tool in your goal-reaching toolkit, as you’ll learn more and more about yourself.

Tip #10: Nike Has It Right: Just Do It

The last tip is perhaps the simplest, and I won’t belabour the point by writing on it at length. To butcher a saying, you miss 100% of the goals you don’t make. So just make the goal, and then work towards it.

Make the decision. Be clear about what you’re aiming for. And then go do it.

Photo by mescon

Maybe its that the party season (and thus all of its goodies and sweets) are behind us, maybe its because it marks the beginning of a new business quarter or new semester, or maybe its just commercialization (all those diet books and gym memberships!) — whatever the reason, when it comes to the start of the new year, “resolutions” seem to be the words on everybody’s lips.

Set Up to Succeed, or to Fail?

But maybe you, like many others, look back on the year that was, and see a list of failed resolutions and things that didn’t get done. As the New Year approaches, you might be inclined to just say “screw resolutions, they don’t work for me anyway”. Or perhaps, by the time you’re reading this, it’s June. 6 months have passed, and you’ve gained 5 pounds instead of lost the 10 you wanted to get rid of in January.

It seems that the word “resolutions” in our society has almost become thought of as little more than a synonym for”guaranteed failures”. There is a cultural meme, propagated through media and everyday conversation and experience, that a huge majority of resolutions are, by their nature, bound to fail.

One must wonder, why would you put yourself in a situation where you’re expecting to fail? Not only do you give yourself an automatic out if (when) it doesn’t work, but you’re really not giving yourself a fair shot at success.

It’s particularly interesting when you consider the types of resolutions that people set: to stop smoking, to lose weight, to be kinder, to work less, etc. All of these things are good things to want! They are all desireable, and good things to have or to do. They all represent positive life changes, and opportunities for personal growth and development. So why make resolutions about these great things, if we believe that resolutions are bound to fail?

Resolve to Set Goals, Instead

If vocabulary is part of what holds us back from creating the life that we want, then the first step is to change our vocabulary.

In other words, if you want to at least give yourself a fighting chance to create the life you want, to make positive life chances, and to nurture opportunities for personal growth and development, stop making resolutions.

Psychological research has shown time and time again that the conscious and unconscious mind has enormous power when it comes to shaping our perceptions of the world — both emotionally and logically. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the title character says this very well: “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

In other words, resolutions in and of themselves aren’t inherently good or bad, nor are they inherently bound for success or failure. But because we think we are more likely to fail to complete a resolution than to succeed, we set ourselves up for that eventual outcome! We believe that we will fail, so we don’t work as hard to succeed.

It works the same way as if I were to tell you, “don’t think about chocolate cake.”  What did you think about?  A gooey, moist, beautiful chocolate cake, maybe with a chocolate ganache and some strawberries and whipped cream on top. But wait, I told you not to think about it!

The thing is that our minds work best when thinking in the positive. We hear “don’t” but our mind processes the thing we “don’t” want. Choice of words can be hugely important as a result: when we say resolution, the mental warning is “don’t fail!” But when we hear “don’t fail”, our mind processes “fail”!

So if you’re looking for a tip about making resolutions that work, the best tip is simply this: make goals, not resolutions. A simple change in vocabulary can make all the difference in the world. Culturally, we have a better opinion of goals, so simply by reframing the situation, we are more lined up for success.

SMART Goal Setting

There is also a practical difference between resolutions and goals: goals have details; resolutions don’t. Goals have deadlines; resolutions don’t (or if they do, they’re vague). Goals have steps and processes, resolutions only have outcomes. Goals get accomplished; resolutions often don’t. You get the idea.

You may have heard of the SMART model for goals. It’s actually an acronym borrowed from business, which basically states that any goal you make should have the following criteria, in order to give yourself the greatest chance for success. Each letter in the word stands for an aspect of goal creation that, when taken all together, can make goal completion far easier.

S: Specific. “Lose weight” is not specific; “lose 10 pounds” is. “Save money” is not specific; “a 3-month emergency fund” is. “Be healthier” is not specific; “eat a serving of fruit every day” is. If you give your goals more specificity, you’ll know exactly what it is you’re going after, which means you’ll also have a better idea of what steps are needed to get there.

M: Measurable. Set a target: 10 pounds, 3-month emergency fund, 1 serving of fruit per day. All of those targets can be measured, so you know whether you’ve hit them or not. If your goal isn’t measurable, you’ll be like a ship at sea without a rudder — sailing and sailing, just hoping that eventually, you’ll hit land (but never knowing whether you’ve arrived, or not!).

A: Achievable. There’s no point in setting a goal that isn’t feasible and actionable. I could set a goal to be 2 inches taller, but what’s the point of that? There’s nothing I can to do achieve that goal; no action I can take to make it happen. Instead, make goals that involve specific action steps you can take. By making yourself the person responsible for your completing goal, you have a better chance to succeed since (if you don’t) there’s no one to blame if you don’t. Making achievable goals also affects how you state the goal: instead of saying “I want to do X”, say “I will do X”. It makes you feel more in-control of your situation, and helps you believe you can do it.

R: Realistic. There’s also no point in setting a goal that you don’t believe you can complete. Otherwise, you have the same problem as we did with resolutions — you don’t believe you will be successful, so you automatically gyp yourself of your best chance to be successful. You may want to run a marathon, but if you can’t dedicate time to train and physically prepare, you won’t be able to.

T: Time-Bound. The ultimate failing of resolutions is the ultimate success point of SMART goals: the time-frame. A good goal will have a definite timeframe for completion: Lose an average of half a pound every week, for 8 weeks. Eat one piece of fruit every day, for 30 days. Put at least $200 into an emergency fund by the last day of every month. The benefit of setting a time-bound is that at the end of the period, you can reflect on how you did — your successes and your failings — so that you can do even better the next time.

Believing is Half the Battle

If you notice a theme in these five aspects of good goals, you would be right: they all have to do with the way you mentally set-up the goal. Again, it comes down to the mind’s ability to impact our effectiveness and our reality. You see what you choose to see, you act the way you choose to act, and you believe the way you choose to believe. Ultimately, it is your power and choice that makes you ultimately responsible for the success or failure of your actions.

Now, I realize that just simply changing your vocabulary from resolution to goal on its own isn’t likely to be enough to get you over your New Year’s hump. There still is the matter of actually following-through on said goal. The key thing I want you impart to you today, though, is not to simply dismiss the power of the mind when it comes to setting yourself up for success.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you a list of practical tips and tricks for getting from “goal” to “accomplished” — so your homework is to spend a few minutes thinking of resolutions that you’ve set in the past (or maybe that you wanted to set for this New Year’s Day!). Take a bit of time to consider how you could transform those vague resolutions into SMART goals. When we meet again, we’ll look at ways you can turn those resolutions into goals, and those goals into reality.

Photo by bricolage.108

Let’s call the people whose religion this is the “Islanders” for lack of a better pseudonym.

Remember, in order to get the full impact of the story, you have to realize that for the people who believe in this religion, this story is completely historically accurate and true. Imagine the most literalist Jew or Christian, and consider their interpretations of Genesis — that’s how seriously the Islanders take this story.

The Creation of the World

In the beginning, a god and a goddess were looking out over the world, which was enveloped in water. The god threw down his spear from heaven, and created the first land-mass.

He and his wife (the goddess) descended to the earth and made all kinds of creatures and beings, but something went wrong. When the goddess was creating fire, she got badly burnt, and ended up dying. She descended to the underworld, a place of impurity, because her burns had disfigured and damaged her body so badly.

The god got lonely, and searched everywhere for his wife. Finally, he found her in the underworld, but she sent him away, lest he become impure because he had been in the underworld. So the god returned to earth and purified himself by jumping in the ocean.

The King and the God

When he jumped in the ocean, he created all kinds of other creatures and gods, including the Sun (a god). The Sun had a son, who married a human being, and together they had another son, who was fully divine and fully human, who became the first king of the Islanders.

Every king of the Islanders descended from this son, and was also fully god and fully human. The king, because he was divine, was never heard from or seen in public. When he went outside, he was covered up, and when he had something to say, he had an aide say it for him.

In order to preserve their religion from outside influences, the Islanders made their religion the official religion of their nation. The king would often go to the temple and ask his ancestor, the Sun, for advice and wisdom. The nation’s schools all taught the special nature of their people, and the divinity of their king, and everyone in the nation knew that their king was a god.

The Great War

This was the Islander’s life for many thousands of years: their king was god, and they were created specially by the gods on the island where the god’s spear had landed.

Then, one day, the Islanders got into a great war with the other inhabitants of the world. Eventually, after many years of fighting for their country and their king (god) the Islanders were defeated. On the first day of the New Year after their defeat in war, something happened that had not happened before.

God got on the radio.

The king — God — who was not seen or heard from before, got on national radio and said to all of the Islanders:

We stand by the people and We wish always to share with them in their moments of joys and sorrows. The ties between Us and Our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends and myths. They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world.

And the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, renounced his divinity, and destroyed thousands of years of Japanese history, tradition and culture in doing so. God got on the radio and said that he was not God, that the creation account sacred to the Japanese was not true, and that they should not depend on “mere legends and myths.”

But… Why?

The question begs to be asked, “Why would he do this?” Why would the Japanese Emperor would come on the radio and renounce his divinity, shattering the beliefs of a whole nation.

Maybe the better question to be asked is, “What can this story teach us? And how can we avoid doing the same, today?”

Many of the readers of my blog live in Canada or the United States, or other “Allied” nations from the Second World War. Your country — our countries — made the Japanese give up what they had always known to be true: the divinity of their Emperor. Because the leaders of the allied nations did not understand the Japanese religion.

To fully grasp what this means, consider…

• What if Hitler had won the war, and had said to the Pope, “You must tell the world that you are not in the line of Peter, and you do not speak for or on the behalf of God.”
• What if Saddam Hussein defeated the Americans in the first Gulf War and told the Christian leaders “You must disavow Christ’s divinity or we will not accept your surrender?”
• What if they told the Americans that they must give up free speech, because they just didn’t think that it was important? Or that the Civil War must not be taught in school because they thought that politics shouldn’t be in education?

What if?

The Conditions of Surrender

Below, I’ve included the memo, sent to the Japanese (to the Emperor, really), outlining a condition of the Japanese surrender: The Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto. Don’t get thrown off by the label “State Shinto” — it is not a mixing of “church and state”; it has nothing to do with putting religion into government, where it doesn’t belong.

State Shinto is where we find the creation account that the Japanese people had believed for thousands of years. It’s the religion that, according to Japanese scriptures, has the Emperor as the divine head of the Japanese people. The same Emperor who was forced to go on the radio and say that his own divinity was a myth.

It’s long, but read it anyway. It’s heartbreaking, in its own way. And its an important part of our history.

Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto

Orders from the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to the Japanese Government

15 December 1945

MEMORANDUM FOR: Imperial Japanese Government
THROUGH: Central Liaison Office, Tokyo
SUBJECT: Abolition of Governmental Sponsorship, Support, Perpetuation, Control, and Dissemination of State Shinto

1. In order to free the Japanese people from direct or indirect compulsion to believe or profess to believe in a religion or cult officially designated by the state, and

In order to lift from the Japanese people the burden of compulsory financial support of an ideology which has contributed to their war guilt, defeat, suffering, privation, and present deplorable condition, and

In order to prevent recurrence of the perversion of Shinto theory and beliefs into militaristic and ultra-nationalistic propaganda designed to delude the Japanese people and lead them into wars of aggression, and

In order to assist the Japanese people in a rededication of their national life to building a new Japan based upon ideals of perpetual peace and democracy,

It is hereby directed that:

a. The sponsorship, support, perpetuation, control, and dissemination of Shinto by the Japanese national, prefectual, and local governments, or by public officials, subordinates, and employees acting in their official capacity are prohibited and will cease immediately.

b. All financial support from public funds and all official affiliation with Shinto and Shinto shrines are prohibited and will cease immediately.

c. All propagation and dissemination of militaristic and ultra-nationistic ideology in Shinto doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies, or observances, as well as in the doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies and observances of any other religion, faith, sect, creed, or philosophy, are prohibited and will cease immediately.

d. The Religious Functions Order relating to the Grand Shrine of Ise and the Religious Functions Order relating to State and other Shrines will be annulled.

e. The Shrine Board of the Ministry of Home Affairs will be abolished, and its present functions, duties, and administrative obligations will not be assumed by any other governmental or tax-supported agency.

f. All public educational institutions whose primary function is either the investigation and dissemination of Shinto or the training of a Shinto priesthood will be abolished and their physical properties diverted to other uses. Their present functions, duties, and administrative obligations will not be assumed by any other governmental or tax-supported agency.

g. Private educational institutions for the investigation and dissemination of Shinto and for the training of priesthood for Shinto will be permitted and will operate with the same privileges and be subject to the same controls and restrictions as any other private educational institution having no affiliation with the government; in no case, however, will they receive support from public funds, and in no case will they propagate and disseminate militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology.

h. The dissemination of Shinto doctrines in any form and by any means in any educational institution supported wholly or in part by public funds is prohibited and will cease immediately.

1) All teachers’ manuals and text-books now in use in any educational institution supported wholly or in part by public funds will be censored, and all Shinto doctrine will be deleted. No teachers’ manual or text-book which is published in the future for use in such institutions will contain any Shinto doctrine.

2) No visits to Shinto shrines and no rites, practices, or ceremonies associated with Shinto will be conducted or sponsored by any educational institution supported wholly or in part by public funds.

i. Circulation by the government of “The Fundamental Principles of the National Structure”, “The Way of the Subject”, and all similar official volumes, commentaries, interpretations, or instructions on Shinto is prohibited.

j. The use in official writings of the terms “Greater East Asia War”, “The Whole World under One Roof”, and all other terms whose connotation in Japanese is inextricably connected with State Shinto, militarism, and ultra-nationalism is prohibited and will cease immediately.

k. God-shelves (kamidana) and all other physical symbols of State Shinto in any office, school institution, organization, or structure supported wholly or in part by public funds are prohibited and will be removed immediately.

l. No official, subordinate, employee, student, citizen, or resident of Japan will be discriminated against because of his failure to profess and believe in or participate in any practice, rite, ceremony, or observance of State Shinto or of any other religion.

m. No official of the national, prefectural, or local government, acting in his public capacity, will visit any shrine to report his assumption of office, to report on conditions of government, or to participate as a representative of government in any ceremony or observance.

2. a. The purpose of this directive is to separate religion from the state to prevent misuse of religion for political ends, and to put all religions, faiths, and creeds upon exactly the same legal basis, entitled to precisely the same opportunities and protection. It forbids affiliation with the government and the propagation and dissemination of militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology not only to Shinto but to the followers of all religions, faiths, sects, creeds, or philosophies.

b. The provisions of this directive will apply with equal force to all rites, practices, ceremonies, observances, beliefs, teachings, mythology, legends, philosophy, shrines, and physical symbols associated with Shinto.

c. The term State Shinto within the meaning of this directive will refer to that branch of Shinto which by official acts of the Japanese Government has been differentiated from the religion of Shrine Shinto and has been classified as a non-religious national cult commonly known as State Shinto or National Shinto.

d. The term Shrine Shinto will refer to that branch of Shinto which by popular belief, legal commentary, and the official acts of the Japanese Government has been recognized to be a religion.

e. Pursuant to the terms of Article I of the Basic Directive on “Removal of Restrictions on Political, Civil, and Religious Liberties” issued on 4 October 1945 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in which the Japanese people were assured complete religious freedom,

(1) Shrine Shinto will enjoy the same protection as any other religion.
(2) Shrine Shinto, after having been divorced from the state and divested of its militaristic and ultra-nationalistic elements, will be recognized as a religion if its adherents so desire and will be granted the same protection as any other religion in so far as it may in fact be the philosophy or religion of Japanese individuals.

f. Militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology, as used in this directive, embraces those teachings, beliefs, and theories, which advocate or justify a mission on the part of Japan to extend its rule over other nations and peoples by reason of:

(1) The doctrine that the Emperor of Japan is superior to the heads of other states because of ancestry, descent, or special origin.
(2) The doctrine that the people of Japan are superior to the people of other lands because of ancestry, descent, or special origin.
(3) The doctrine that the islands of Japan are superior to other lands because of divine or special origin.
(4) Any other doctrine which tends to delude the Japanese people into embarking upon wars of aggression or to glorify the use of force as an instrument for the settlement of disputes with other people.

3. The Imperial Japanese Government will submit a comprehensive report to this Headquarters not later than 15 March 1946 describing in detail all ac