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Tag: self improvement

How To Achieve The Extraordinary

How To Achieve The Extraordinary

You want to do extraordinary things. We all do, I think this is quite universal. We’d all like to achieve something (or many things) that seem to be out of reach for most people.

We want to be in that small minority that climbs an 8,000 metre mountain, wins a marathon, builds a wildly successful business or becomes a famous actor.

What makes these things extraordinary? Extraordinary things are extraordinary, simply because so few people achieve them.

Then why is it that so few actually manage to achieve them? What, exactly, is stopping us?

Conventional wisdom tells us that we need a plan to achieve our goals. We need structure. We need tips and tricks. I am a little obsessed with reading self-help and psychology books. If you’ve read even a fraction of the books that I have on achieving goals, then you’ll be familiar with some of the common advice:

  1. Write it down
  2. Break it into smaller tasks
  3. Set deadlines
  4. Make yourself accountable
  5. And so on…

This is all great advice, and is probably very useful. But what I often find missing in the common advice, is this:

To achieve the extraordinary, you have to be willing to

Turn Your New Year’s Resolution into a New Year’s Challenge

Turn Your New Year’s Resolution into a New Year’s Challenge

New Year’s eve has come and gone, and I’m eyeing the beautiful blank pages in my 2022 calendar, imagining the great things I might accomplish with a full year’s time.

I could start a new project I’ve been thinking about, work on breaking a bad habit or creating a new one, or just resolve to get better at something I’m already doing (like writing here more often… whoops!).

These are classic New Year’s resolutions, which seem to be a love/hate relationship for most people. We are all familiar with that sinking feeling you get looking back at the year and realizing we fell short in achieving what we set out to do the previous New Year’s eve.

There is an inherent problem with New Year’s resolutions, and it’s right there in the wording. A resolution is a firm decision to do, or not do, something. And while that determined vision for the future (hopefully accompanied by a clear goal) is well intentioned, hopes and determination are not enough to push our monkey brains into the concrete action needed to succeed.…

Pick a Direction, Not a Destination

Pick a Direction, Not a Destination

Sometime during my junior year of high school, a school guidance counsellor unceremoniously delivered the news that I must decide what to do after graduation. Like most 17 year olds, beyond the vague notion that I should probably go to college or university, I had little idea what I wanted to do in the next six months, let alone in the rest of my life.

Walking the school halls one day, I noticed a flyer stuck on one of the bulletin boards advertising a program at an Ottawa college that would teach you how to become a video game developer. I liked video games, and I was already an aspiring programmer, so I figured it was a perfect fit. I spent weeks crafting a portfolio, applied to the program, and to the surprise of 17 year old me, I was accepted.…

The Secret to Achieving Goals

The Secret to Achieving Goals

When I was eighteen, I traded my PlayStation 2 for my brother-in-law’s old snowboard. I had never skied or snowboarded before, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard. My first trip to the hill was a rude awakening, as I quickly learned that snowboarding is hard. Over the next 7 years I attempted to fulfill my goal of becoming a snowboarder, but I could never improve enough to make it down a full run without bailing, or nearly bailing. All these other people at the ski hill can snowboard just fine, so what was I missing?

After my snowboard collected dust in the basement for many years, this past winter I decided to try to learn snowboarding again. Reflecting on my previous efforts, I noted that I went to the ski hill infrequently, and at random. There were years that I only went once. Other years I went many times, but let week or more go by between visits. I decided that if I were to finally learn how to snowboard, I needed to practice more often, and more consistently.

So I bought a season pass to a nearby ski hill, and without fail, every 2-3 days …