That AHA Moment

I was talking to a friend this morning and he explained how he's taking things one day at a time.

Those words inspired this post. 

I realized those were the exact words I was looking for. It fit right into a hole in my thought process. Let me break it down.

In the beginning, trying to lose weight, I was so concerned with the number I was trying to reach.

100 pound goal is intimidating! It feels like an impossible task. I told myself I will never get there!

     Of course as long as I had that mindset, I was right.

I was looking at the peak of a mountain from the base. 

Of course the task was impossible! 

There was a stinking mountain in front of me!

I would get so frustrated staring at the mountain because the peak was so far away. I was so busy staring at the peak, I didn't bother moving toward it.  

     Aim without action leads to frustration.

After many times growing frustrated and quitting, I knew something was broken.

There's plenty of people out there finding success, I should be too.. I had a losing strategy.

     "Hi, I'm Justin and I have performance anxiety."

I figured the more I aimed at my destination, the better I could reach it but that's not the case at all.

     Perfection is the enemy of good.

Ready... Aim...

All it does is ensure you don't take any steps. Just like I wasn't taking any steps. It keeps the goal out of reach. Just like my goals remained out of mine.

What's more, there's only so long one can aim before it becomes detrimental. You become worse aiming too long. You get fatigued, frustrated. 

It's a good way to give up.

The things is, you don't know how accurate your aim is until you act on it. Plenty of time on the range I thought I was sighted dead bullseye... But when I fired, I was off the charts.

Not in a good way. The paper target didn't even move from the wind of the bullet. 

That's how off I was!

But after aiming and acting, then aiming and acting again, I finally got on the paper. I finally started seeing results.

The more I acted on the aim, the better my aim got.

Listen, acting is not more important than the aim. 

     Action without aim leads to exhaustion. 

You need both! 

Acting without aim is dangerous, in a gun range and also in life. It'll also lead you to exhaustion  It's doggy padding against a rip current.

But aiming then acting, that's progress.

It's through action can one hone their aim.

Action and Aim are two legs of a stool. The things is, you kind of need 3 legs for steady progress, right?

What is that 3rd leg you ask?

Wouldn't you like to know.

The Third Leg

It's recording your progress.

I was trying to be clever and make the last word more meaningful to the entire concept.

I could use handwriting to reveal am AHA moment. But no matter how I tried, it just didn't fit.

But if want to have an AHA moment, by all means, use Handwriting.

For best results, you need to record your aim and your action. Without it, it is easy to get stuck in a losing strategy. It's easy to circle the mountain instead of climbing it. I know I did.

What's more, what if you stumble across a winning strategy and not remember how to replicate it? Sure, you got some ground but it'd be good to remember how you did it so you can do it more. When you record your aim and action, you can tweak what's wrong and milk what works.

It wasn't until I arranged my strategy on paper was I able to advance.

It wasn't until I was able to align my results in an array was I able to acquire the best plans forward.

Recording the process, both in failing and in success, scales progress.

So with me now.

Aim. Find your direction for the day. It only takes a minute.

Act. Head in your direction for the day. Every step counts.

Record. Write down what worked and what didn't so you can better hone your aim tomorrow.

If you need help with any 3, come talk to me.