How Bad Do You Want It?

Off Topic
21

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Another point at which most people fail is proper planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Any “long term” goal, be it physical, career, new skill-set, etc… requires a plan. It requires a CLEAR vision of what you want. Once you have that, you simply figure out how to get there.

“I wanna get big and swole” is a hell of a different goal than “I will add fifteen pounds of lean muscle mass by eating XXX a day and doing 5/3/1 for a year”.

“I wanna get rich” is FAR different from “I will make TEN calls a day to my referral partners and strategic alliances” (knowing that ten calls a day yields twenty applications a month which yields five closed deals per month with an average of two points on a 350K loan amount which equals ~35K in gross commissions)

“I wanna kick ass in billiards” is different than “I will practice shooting 100 long shots a day for one month and then focus on bank shots next month”

CLEARLY DEFINED goals is what will make it happen. Clearly defined can mean different things to different people. I personally have a “dream board”. I have a physical representation of what I want to achieve in front of me. Every time I look up, there it is. I also have a separate spreadsheet with a plan for EACH goal.

I schedule a WHOLE DAY every week to examine my progress, make sure I’m on track, and adjust my goals, my plan or my tactics/strategy as necessary. Once a month, I have a skype conference call with my “mastermind group” (a group of friends and mentors) to be held accountable for what I said I would achieve that month.

Accountability and getting leverage on yourself is very important. Personally, I am a very “pleasure seeking” person. I HATE to do tedious and boring “work”. So I set up accountability systems to punish myself when I fall short and rewards for when I meet my goal perfectly. The “budget” for each is the same - $XXX.00 to my friend when I fuck up and $XXX.00 to party my ass off with hookers and cocaine (I kid) when I succeed. I also have no problem paying other people to do work I don’t enjoy doing. I focus on selling and I have a partner who focuses on the details and structuring and compliance and the THOUSANDS of details that I really don’t enjoy keeping track of.

With the above “system” I’ve been able to get a lot done with my career in a relatively short amount of time. Of course, it helps that I’m in an industry that offers commission and not a straight salary, but the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Some people aren’t comfortable with that kind of risk. Or it would be irresponsible for them to switch to a high risk career if they are supporting a family - the learning curve would be too steep and the possibility of failure unacceptable.

But if I can go from being a felon with out a HS diploma, working blue collar for a decade after prison and make a career change that LITERALLY added a “zero” my income, why can’t other people do it?

I have a friend who moved here LESS than ten years ago from Peru with NOTHING, he opened a painting business and bought a few properties, flipped them, reinvested and rented them out and now has a crew of guys working for him and a net worth of over three million… WHY can’t people who are BORN here do that?

Because MOST people are afraid to think BIG and figure out how to make their dreams come true… They are afraid to get outside of their comfort zone… They are afraid to “fail” (or they are afraid of being JUDGED for “failing”)… So they just… don’t…

Learning a SYSTEM of goal setting and proper planning is probably the most valuable skill a person can possess. Good thread idea, OP.

my .02[/quote]

How does your juggling diary look like today?

Any chance to stop by my place between 4 and 5 pm so we can fuck?

What you wrote up there really made me want to suck and taste every inch of your bawdy…

22

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]fisch wrote:
I stop drinking after I hit drunk, not after I throw up.
[/quote]

What does that have to do with everything else you said?[/quote]

Basically that I control myself enough that when I still go out and have fun I know theres a limit I shouldn’t hit if I still want to be productive the next day. While I do enjoy myself in the short term I also know that I need to get shit done tomorrow and can’t get completely wasted and sleep in til 3 pm and have a hangover the rest of the day like many people I know. I have tests to study for, work to go to, the gym to go to, and errands to take care of.

23

[quote]challer1 wrote:

[quote]fisch wrote:
Basically this thread was made because I want more peoples input about willpower. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish once you want something bad enough. Why are some people able to develop willpower while others never do? How do people develop willpower?

In your opinion is it easy to lose willpower? How much do other people effect willpower? What even causes willpower to be developed in the first place? Something so effective is so lacking in many people it seems.[/quote]

1.The way you describe this it boils down to one thing: ego. Some people have managed to convince themselves at some point in their life (not important when) that their identity belongs to the future. When you’ve convinced yourself that your identity is in whatever you are working towards, its easy to dig up the “willpower” you need to put forth the stress and effort so you can strive towards the always on the horizon future. To do anything less would be to face the equivalent of mental self-annihilation.

2.Possessing willpower of that sort is hardly more admirable and leads to no more happiness the lazy person who makes a habit of sitting around in a mild depression, recounting his or her old glory days of things that once happened to him or flipping through her photo albums on Facebook. Though completely different in appearance, being ambitious and being lazy are two sides of the same coin.

3.Anyone can correct this when they make the realization that you will never find yourself in the past of the future, and the only thing we ever experience happens in the present. When you can do a task without trying to seek your identity through it, it becomes simple, effortless doing.

4.I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past, and since I have come to realize this I get done much more without the stress that was previously associated with working hard towards a goal and without requiring “willpower”, which really is a thinly-veiled compulsory mindset.
[/quote]

I feel that you and I have different views of willpower.

  1. So setting goals and working to achieve them is putting your identity in the future? I agree that you do put some of your self worth on whatever you are striving for. If you did not value your future goals and take pride in accomplishing them there would not be any reason to ever sacrifice anything to reach them, whether that goal is to bench 300 pounds or to make a million dollars. I would say though that what you are describing sounds a lot more like unhealthy obsession than a driven individual who knows what he wants and is willing to work for it. In my eyes there is a difference.

  2. It sounds your talking about a person that believes they can only be happy once they reach whatever goal they set out to achieve. Again, I think this sounds more like and obsessed person then a driven person. A driven person sets their goals, looks at what is needed to reach them, and takes the necessary steps to do so. They do not let their goals destroy their current life to reach future happiness. I set my goals and want to reach them. That does not mean throwing everything I enjoy just because its not necessary to reach my goals.

  3. So people should just party every night and not look ahead to the future? We should adopt the mindset of “Shit, im having fun tonight, no need to think what my life will be like 5 or 10 years from now”? The future may not bring us happiness today, but by taking the right steps we can make our future selves much happier

4.Working toward a goal provides some stress yeah. Not working toward it can also have stress. Say you are earning very little money right now and you have a family to support. You don’t have money to feed and clothe your kids. Bet you’re pretty stressed out then. You set a goal to earn 100k by a year from now. Yeah during that year your probably going to have to work your butt off, come up with ideas, spend time on those ideas, see your kids less, sleep less, deal with rejection, have days where it seems hopeless and like your wasting your time. But if/when you succeed how much stress are you going to have now? You don’t have to worry about feeding your kids, you can give them clothes, pay for medical expenses, and have money to pay rent or other stuff. Extreme example yes, but the concept can be applied in many areas. Goals can reduce stress and make you happier.

Willpower can be as simple as not eating a bowl of ice cream or as hard as re defining your life. Either way I feel it is a good thing as long as you don’t become obsessed and ruin your life.

24

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Another point at which most people fail is proper planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Any “long term” goal, be it physical, career, new skill-set, etc… requires a plan. It requires a CLEAR vision of what you want. Once you have that, you simply figure out how to get there.

“I wanna get big and swole” is a hell of a different goal than “I will add fifteen pounds of lean muscle mass by eating XXX a day and doing 5/3/1 for a year”.

“I wanna get rich” is FAR different from “I will make TEN calls a day to my referral partners and strategic alliances” (knowing that ten calls a day yields twenty applications a month which yields five closed deals per month with an average of two points on a 350K loan amount which equals ~35K in gross commissions)

“I wanna kick ass in billiards” is different than “I will practice shooting 100 long shots a day for one month and then focus on bank shots next month”

CLEARLY DEFINED goals is what will make it happen. Clearly defined can mean different things to different people. I personally have a “dream board”. I have a physical representation of what I want to achieve in front of me. Every time I look up, there it is. I also have a separate spreadsheet with a plan for EACH goal.

I schedule a WHOLE DAY every week to examine my progress, make sure I’m on track, and adjust my goals, my plan or my tactics/strategy as necessary. Once a month, I have a skype conference call with my “mastermind group” (a group of friends and mentors) to be held accountable for what I said I would achieve that month.

Accountability and getting leverage on yourself is very important. Personally, I am a very “pleasure seeking” person. I HATE to do tedious and boring “work”. So I set up accountability systems to punish myself when I fall short and rewards for when I meet my goal perfectly. The “budget” for each is the same - $XXX.00 to my friend when I fuck up and $XXX.00 to party my ass off with hookers and cocaine (I kid) when I succeed. I also have no problem paying other people to do work I don’t enjoy doing. I focus on selling and I have a partner who focuses on the details and structuring and compliance and the THOUSANDS of details that I really don’t enjoy keeping track of.

With the above “system” I’ve been able to get a lot done with my career in a relatively short amount of time. Of course, it helps that I’m in an industry that offers commission and not a straight salary, but the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Some people aren’t comfortable with that kind of risk. Or it would be irresponsible for them to switch to a high risk career if they are supporting a family - the learning curve would be too steep and the possibility of failure unacceptable.

But if I can go from being a felon with out a HS diploma, working blue collar for a decade after prison and make a career change that LITERALLY added a “zero” my income, why can’t other people do it?

I have a friend who moved here LESS than ten years ago from Peru with NOTHING, he opened a painting business and bought a few properties, flipped them, reinvested and rented them out and now has a crew of guys working for him and a net worth of over three million… WHY can’t people who are BORN here do that?

Because MOST people are afraid to think BIG and figure out how to make their dreams come true… They are afraid to get outside of their comfort zone… They are afraid to “fail” (or they are afraid of being JUDGED for “failing”)… So they just… don’t…

Learning a SYSTEM of goal setting and proper planning is probably the most valuable skill a person can possess. Good thread idea, OP.

my .02[/quote]

Sounds a lot like Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill ;). Great book, actually one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about willpower so much.

[quote]
Another point at which most people fail is proper planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Any “long term” goal, be it physical, career, new skill-set, etc… requires a plan. It requires a CLEAR vision of what you want. Once you have that, you simply figure out how to get there.[/quote]

Very true. Just because you want something badly does not mean you will reach it. You can want to be as rich as Bill Gates but if you have no idea how to get there you stand no chance. There is no easily laid out blueprint or step-by-step guide that tells you who to talk to, how to spend your time, or what idea you should come up with. All that is on the individual and requires you to plan for yourself how you are going to do it. Honestly, it seems like coming up with a solid, follow-able plan is the hardest part of reaching a goal.

Clearly defined goals are extremely important, which is what you and and a couple others have mentioned. I have just recently realized how important it is to have specific, concrete, hard to reach yet still attainable goals. When you know EXACTLY what you want, when you want it, it becomes much easier to plan to reach them. You can hold yourself accountable much easier.

25

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Another point at which most people fail is proper planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Any “long term” goal, be it physical, career, new skill-set, etc… requires a plan. It requires a CLEAR vision of what you want. Once you have that, you simply figure out how to get there.

“I wanna get big and swole” is a hell of a different goal than “I will add fifteen pounds of lean muscle mass by eating XXX a day and doing 5/3/1 for a year”.

“I wanna get rich” is FAR different from “I will make TEN calls a day to my referral partners and strategic alliances” (knowing that ten calls a day yields twenty applications a month which yields five closed deals per month with an average of two points on a 350K loan amount which equals ~35K in gross commissions)

“I wanna kick ass in billiards” is different than “I will practice shooting 100 long shots a day for one month and then focus on bank shots next month”

CLEARLY DEFINED goals is what will make it happen. Clearly defined can mean different things to different people. I personally have a “dream board”. I have a physical representation of what I want to achieve in front of me. Every time I look up, there it is. I also have a separate spreadsheet with a plan for EACH goal.

I schedule a WHOLE DAY every week to examine my progress, make sure I’m on track, and adjust my goals, my plan or my tactics/strategy as necessary. Once a month, I have a skype conference call with my “mastermind group” (a group of friends and mentors) to be held accountable for what I said I would achieve that month.

Accountability and getting leverage on yourself is very important. Personally, I am a very “pleasure seeking” person. I HATE to do tedious and boring “work”. So I set up accountability systems to punish myself when I fall short and rewards for when I meet my goal perfectly. The “budget” for each is the same - $XXX.00 to my friend when I fuck up and $XXX.00 to party my ass off with hookers and cocaine (I kid) when I succeed. I also have no problem paying other people to do work I don’t enjoy doing. I focus on selling and I have a partner who focuses on the details and structuring and compliance and the THOUSANDS of details that I really don’t enjoy keeping track of.

With the above “system” I’ve been able to get a lot done with my career in a relatively short amount of time. Of course, it helps that I’m in an industry that offers commission and not a straight salary, but the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Some people aren’t comfortable with that kind of risk. Or it would be irresponsible for them to switch to a high risk career if they are supporting a family - the learning curve would be too steep and the possibility of failure unacceptable.

But if I can go from being a felon with out a HS diploma, working blue collar for a decade after prison and make a career change that LITERALLY added a “zero” my income, why can’t other people do it?

I have a friend who moved here LESS than ten years ago from Peru with NOTHING, he opened a painting business and bought a few properties, flipped them, reinvested and rented them out and now has a crew of guys working for him and a net worth of over three million… WHY can’t people who are BORN here do that?

Because MOST people are afraid to think BIG and figure out how to make their dreams come true… They are afraid to get outside of their comfort zone… They are afraid to “fail” (or they are afraid of being JUDGED for “failing”)… So they just… don’t…

Learning a SYSTEM of goal setting and proper planning is probably the most valuable skill a person can possess. Good thread idea, OP.

my .02[/quote]

How does your juggling diary look like today?

Any chance to stop by my place between 4 and 5 pm so we can fuck?

What you wrote up there really made me want to suck and taste every inch of your bawdy…
[/quote]

Here’s a PRIME example of missed opportunity, guys. I failed to follow up with this thread (obviously due to lack of time management skills and being so disorganized) and I missed out! I failed to seize the day! Opportunity knocked and I fucking wasn’t listening! SHIT!!!

My only hope is that DN will be inspired again in the future sometime… I’ve got to start coming up with some more ideas… … I got nothin’!

I guess some other guy will will end up in MY SPOT and have the pleasure of being tied up, fucked with a studded strap on (my girl LUVS the gaping, ya know) and tortured until her arms are tired (have you seen those arms? YUM!). FML

Lessons learned: When opportunity knocks, you’d better be ready! And not fucking around on OTHER websites!

:wink:

Baby, I’d CLEAR my “juggling diary” and SHOW you rather than tell you what I’d do to you… and I wouldn’t ask to spend the night, either! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

26

Great fucking post Angry Chicken.
Should be read in school right after the pledge of allegiance.

27

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Another point at which most people fail is proper planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Any “long term” goal, be it physical, career, new skill-set, etc… requires a plan. It requires a CLEAR vision of what you want. Once you have that, you simply figure out how to get there.
[/quote]

Yes and no.

Two flip-sides to that are failing to appreciate serendipity – finding B when you’re looking for A (or nothing at all), and more insidiously: becoming slave to the plan and believing more in the plan than reality.

On that second: a plan is a map. It’s a model of reality, and a route by which you think you’re going to get there. In my line of work (IT projects), there’s often a set goal to meet, and a plan is generally described in terms of 1) time, 2) budget, and 3) features.

After a while, you find that you’re not quite where you thought you’d be with regard to one or more of these resources. The naive view is to press harder. The experienced view is to revisit the plan and modify it according to experience.

That’s standard GST (goals, strategy, tactics) stuff. Figure out what you want. Figure out how go get there. Figure out what specifically to do to get there.

The other concept to pull in is from the military: OODA loops. Observe, orient, decide, act. Repeat.

Defined and measurable helps a lot. The problem is that we can define and measure a lot of things that don’t particularly matter, especially by way of intermediate processes (this is a huge problem in science, and explains, f’rex, a lot of the false leads we’ve had in nutrition over the past 50 years).

Here I like to borrow from Jacob Nielsen’s web UI work: focus on outcomes. He measures time to complete a task, and (for multiple users), success rates. This gives an objective and measurable metric which synthesizes and abstracts a lot of smaller steps (which he then identifies as contributing factors). But his first focus is on outcomes.

Bingo.

That works for some people but not others. Look to Daniel Pink’s TED talk on motivation. For a lot of complicated tasks, overt reward (e.g.: compensation or incentive pay) may be counterproductive (though Pink’s got his critics as well).

I do technical work and find that I get further with a well-defined (and stable) goal, time to work toward it, and not too much worry about my environment. If you look at tech projects which have been hugely successful, many follow the Free Software model. Participation is open to anyone (though acceptance is based on your skills and merits), you literally cannot be fired, timelines are largely open, and you keep working at it until you get it right. The focus is more on correctness than timeliness (though both can matter).

28

[quote]fisch wrote:
This is something I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the past year. Some people seem to always be able to find ways to dedicate themselves to every task they do even if they don’t want to do it. I’ve always been one of these people. I still remember my basketball coach yelling “How bad do you want it?!?” during conditioning drills.
[/quote]

A few related notes:

Self-control is a key determinant of success in later life. A classic example is an experiment which looked at the ability of young kids (~4 years old) to resist the temptation to eat a marshmallow (successful kids would recive two). Following the same students through life, it turns out the ones who could wait were overall far more successful:
http://articles.boston.com/2011-06-12/bostonglobe/29650724_1_marshmallow-control-children

There’s some innateness to this, though patience can also be taught.

[quote]
If I have a test coming up, I force myself to study. I want to gain weight so I take time to prepare meals and lift. I stop drinking after I hit drunk, not after I throw up. I have goals and I want to reach them so it never really crosses my mind to not do those things. I give up a little in the present to get a lot in the future, easy decision in my opinion. After talking with others it seems this isn’t common?

A friend of mine mentioned to me he doesn’t know how I do it. He asked if willpower is something I was born with or if I felt it was something I developed over time. I was unsure at first. Like I said as long as I can remember I’ve been this way. But I honestly feel it is developed. It comes down to how bad you want something and doing everything you can do get it. Over time this becomes a habit and that willpower becomes more and more a part of you.

Basically this thread was made because I want more peoples input about willpower. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish once you want something bad enough. Why are some people able to develop willpower while others never do? How do people develop willpower?

In your opinion is it easy to lose willpower? How much do other people effect willpower? What even causes willpower to be developed in the first place? Something so effective is so lacking in many people it seems.[/quote]

I definitely see motivation come and go. It helps for me if the rest of my life is structured and the worse uncertainties are removed. There’s a lot to suggest that constantly disruptive environments are unsuitable to stable developoment (and not just on a personal fulfillment basis). Recent examples / instances that come to mind:

Niall Fergusson’s The Ascent of Money talks about financial stability as a prerequisite to economic development (for individuals, cities, states, …). Biologists note that there are specific plant species which tend most to invade highly disrupted lands (vacant lots and such), and that these aren’t necessarily typical indiginous species. Fish stock collapses have lead to the rise of both invasive and “junk” fish species (jellyfish in particular). In IT projects, disruptive organizations and/or environments tend to produce much worse code – the highest quality projects tend either to be very long-profile government works (think NASA), or Free Software projects (Linux, Apache, etc.).

Also in the IT world, there’s a lot of research on procrastination and other elements of project and staff management:

One reason for not pursuing a goal is not knowing the appropriate path to follow. It took my doing a lot of research on fitness and strength training, as well as the epxerience of following several for a time, to find success. There are some fields in which there’s a slew of misinformation and hucksterism, and this can be a huge impediment to people making successful progress. Just look at your typical fitness myths: carbs, fats, cardio, lifting, getting hyooge, etc. I roll my eyes at these today, five years ago I believed most or all of them solidly.

TL;DR: willpower is both intrinsic and trainable, knowing the right path matters, having some level of stability and security in your life helps a lot.

30

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Here’s a PRIME example of missed opportunity, guys. I failed to follow up with this thread (obviously due to lack of time management skills and being so disorganized) and I missed out! I failed to seize the day! Opportunity knocked and I fucking wasn’t listening! SHIT!!!

My only hope is that DN will be inspired again in the future sometime… I’ve got to start coming up with some more ideas… … I got nothin’!

I guess some other guy will will end up in MY SPOT and have the pleasure of being tied up, fucked with a studded strap on (my girl LUVS the gaping, ya know) and tortured until her arms are tired (have you seen those arms? YUM!). FML

Lessons learned: When opportunity knocks, you’d better be ready! And not fucking around on OTHER websites!

:wink:

Baby, I’d CLEAR my “juggling diary” and SHOW you rather than tell you what I’d do to you… and I wouldn’t ask to spend the night, either! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: [/quote]

Hey, I made good use of your slot.

No worries.[/quote]

Good on your for seizing the opportunity!

How does your asshole feel? They make these doughnut ring things that you can sit on - it’ll definitely make the next few days easier. LMAO

She wasn’t too rough on you, was she?

32

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Here’s a PRIME example of missed opportunity, guys. I failed to follow up with this thread (obviously due to lack of time management skills and being so disorganized) and I missed out! I failed to seize the day! Opportunity knocked and I fucking wasn’t listening! SHIT!!!

My only hope is that DN will be inspired again in the future sometime… I’ve got to start coming up with some more ideas… … I got nothin’!

I guess some other guy will will end up in MY SPOT and have the pleasure of being tied up, fucked with a studded strap on (my girl LUVS the gaping, ya know) and tortured until her arms are tired (have you seen those arms? YUM!). FML

Lessons learned: When opportunity knocks, you’d better be ready! And not fucking around on OTHER websites!

:wink:

Baby, I’d CLEAR my “juggling diary” and SHOW you rather than tell you what I’d do to you… and I wouldn’t ask to spend the night, either! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: [/quote]

Hey, I made good use of your slot.

No worries.[/quote]

Good on your for seizing the opportunity!

How does your asshole feel? They make these doughnut ring things that you can sit on - it’ll definitely make the next few days easier. LMAO

She wasn’t too rough on you, was she?[/quote]

I REALLY want to answer you, but I don’t think DN would like that…

And I’m hoping to be allowed to go back for more! ;-)[/quote]

Ahhh, I see. Well they say discretion IS the better part of valor, my friend… Get plenty of rest when she lets you. LMAO

33

What are some books to get regarding person goal setting,etc? Like how Angry Chicken was talking about setting very specific goals, and how to reach them with very specific actionable tasks. k-dingo brings up some very interesting points as well, and I would be curious where he got his information from. Does anyone know any good books?

this seems like one of those few topics people can actually learn something from.

34

[quote]honest_lifter wrote:
What are some books to get regarding person goal setting,etc? Like how Angry Chicken was talking about setting very specific goals, and how to reach them with very specific actionable tasks. k-dingo brings up some very interesting points as well, and I would be curious where he got his information from. Does anyone know any good books?

this seems like one of those few topics people can actually learn something from.[/quote]

It’s more like an action you learn from…and you start doing that all day everyday.

The people making the least progress here are usually the type with “general” goals like “i just want to lean up a little” or “I am just trying to stay in shape”.

the ones blowing up are the type who initially plan to gain another 5lbs of good size…and then reset their goals once they reach it.

That is a mindset. Reading up on it is nice, but there are TONS of people reading about how to be successful who never will be.

I put more faith in the action than the intent.

35

[quote]honest_lifter wrote:
What are some books to get regarding person goal setting,etc? Like how Angry Chicken was talking about setting very specific goals, and how to reach them with very specific actionable tasks. k-dingo brings up some very interesting points as well, and I would be curious where he got his information from. Does anyone know any good books?

this seems like one of those few topics people can actually learn something from.[/quote]

I have a friend who loves reading about this. I will ask him for some titles.

EDIT : Sometimes the edit doesn’t go through here. The list :

  1. Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich
  2. Brian Tracy’s Goals
  3. Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less
36

Anybody else gets a bit of a confession/question vibe here? This thread already delivers a lot of good opinions and useful info, and AC’s wisdom on pretty much anything is well-worth reading. Anyway…

I don’t think it’s just “you either have it or you don’t”. We all “have it” sometimes for something, and then lack it in some other situations. The key IMO is to make yourself more consistent with motivation and pushing yourself - to focus all your strength on making self-discipline A HABIT. Once you have a habit of doing things you don’t have to do - you can continue to make other habits.

For example, most of us here are at a stage when non-working out is a bigger stress then hitting the gym. We got there by making disciplined decisions to go and work out for a while, until we got used to that. Now, it’s barely a decision - we just go and do it. It’s a habit.

That way, we can program ourselves to do useful things on regular basis. We create an autopilot of habits that keeps us on the right track, including a habit of tuning it occasionally - and with minimal stress.

37
38

I did my homework and found a few really cool books and read them (not super long, and I had all day). I thought I would share them here. The first one is a really short read. It is a free book you can download to your kindle. It is called, “Goal Setting: Discover What You Want in Life and Achieve It Faster than You Think Possible [Kindle Edition]”. It had exactly what Angry Chicken and Professor X were talking about (specific goals, actionable tasks, etc.) and was very to the point, no fluff. The second one mentions that marshmallow story about the kids delaying gratification, and the science behind that behavior and how it can be duplicated. Really, it is the science behind what we call “willpower”. Great book. It is called, “Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success [Kindle Edition]” and is like 13 dollars. Well worth it IMO.

Hope this interests somebody.

39

I want it.

40

[quote]honest_lifter wrote:
What are some books to get regarding person goal setting,etc? Like how Angry Chicken was talking about setting very specific goals, and how to reach them with very specific actionable tasks. k-dingo brings up some very interesting points as well, and I would be curious where he got his information from. Does anyone know any good books?

this seems like one of those few topics people can actually learn something from.[/quote]

I don’t know how much of this comes from books. A lot of it is combining observations over 20+ years in the working/professional world combined with a lot of reading.

I cited most of my references (a weakness of mine), so you should be able to follow up on them.

The OODA Loop stuff comes straight out of my ROTC training about 20 years ago. That was one of the topics we touched on, and it left an impression.

I work in technology, and there’s a whole literature associated with project and programmer management, much of which is either bullshit or wishful thinking, but some of which has some elements of truth.

One of the most valuable books I ever bought was a copy of Murphey’s Law And Other Reasons Things Go Wrong by Arthur Bloch. Most of these are freely downloadable off teh Intartubes, though you can buy the book new for under $4 on Amazon. A bunch of collected wisdom, much of it from cynical engineers, which just gets more true with time.

I’ve been heavily influenced by my exposure to the Free Software (a/k/a Open Source) movement and its methods and philosophy. The Success of Open Source by Steve Weber is among the better books on the topic.

My “don’t confuse the plan with reality” statement is really just my own observation. Far too often a plan is accepted as received wisdom and objective reality. It’s not, and if experience shows the plan is flawed and/or overoptimistic, it should be revised. Organizational dynamics can make this tremendously difficult. There’s a survey book on organizational structures I wish for the life of me I could remember, but I’m afraid it’s gone. Possibly Harvard Business Review on Decision Making.

comp.risks is a mailing list / digest of technological disasters which I’ve followed for nearly 20 years, and which has been tremendously informative (it’s gotten increasingly repetitive in the past ten years or so). There’s a lot to be learned from studying failures. And successes.

My own strength training experiences have also shaped my thinking a lot. I’ve been kicking around an essay along the lines of “what I’ve learned about business and technology management from weightlifting” (or something similarly sexy). Intensity, volume, consistency, recovery, overtraining, matching training and diet, and a bunch of other stuff.

Interestingly, there’s a key Google engineer, Matt Cutts, who’s also pretty into fitness and apparently writes about this a bit (I need to look up his material). Not all geeks have pencil necks.

Hope that helps some and doesn’t confuse excessively.