Supplementing Activity: Achieving Success with Your Active Role

Since I missed posting a new entry last week, I thought I would give you an additional post this week (don't you feel special).  Plus, this notion will play a somewhat supplementary role for this week's previous post.  Quick recap: I wrote earlier this week about taking an active approach to life.  More specifically I preached (although I don't intend to necessarily sound preach but instead ponderous) about taking action to get what you want or improve your life instead of passively hoping luck falls your way.  I think it's important to stress that just because you actively attempt to change your life for the better doesn't mean you necessarily will. We all have our limitations so even if we work hard failure can creep in; however, I'd surmise you stand a much better chance of improvement by working at it rather than presuming impending failure.

I'd like to discuss ways to improve the chances of success when taking such an active approach because I think how you do something is just as important as what you do.  I've spoken with my family about the strategies this past week and they are something that have been on my mind a lot recently.  I think what's most interesting is how many times we know and understand information, various strategies, "truths," etc but we don't implement them.  Personally, conceptualizing is such an easy task but turning the concept into action is much more difficult than it seems.  Sometimes you just that external push to get you going.

I sometimes think this blog serves a dual purpose.  Let's be serious, it does serve as a dual purpose.  Not only do I get to write about interesting topics, but I also have space to almost regurgitate the millions of thoughts constantly fluttering through my mind.  Now, back to the task at hand.

Micromanaging

I often talk about the bigger picture. I will reference looking at the bigger picture; thinking about the bigger picture; considering the bigger picture; etc.  At times, taking this mindset is vital for ultimate fruition.  For instance, taking a minuscule, trivial spat and looking at the bigger picture of the relationship before blowing it way out of proportion is necessary.  On the other hand, for today, when looking to do something productive or make a really good change we need to look at the puzzle pieces before we can finish the puzzle.  I don't really recall hearing micro and macro used often other than in economics, but I think they are necessary words to consider here.  We need to learn how to micromanage tasks.

To clarify, by micromanage I mean break down into more plausible steps.  It's necessary for me to define that before I get too deep because you could be carrying a different notion, which would make the rest of this thought process bemusing.

So, what do I mean? I think one of the biggest obstacles to making a positive change or taking an active role is that we make it out to be a big obstacle.  Instead of seeing something as a series of manageable events we sometimes consolidate the whole notion together, which makes it appear inevitably bound to fail.  But we must learn to break it down.

As you know from a few posts ago, my cousin recently got married (WOO!).  The wedding is still fresh on my mind so I would again like to use her as an example.  Normally wedding planning is a big deal.  As in, people freak out because there is so much to do! (Note: I'm not sitting here trying to discredit the stress wedding planning brings).  Here's the deal, though. Generally speaking, the future bride and groom have a year plus between engagement and saying I do.  Many people will look at that and think about all of the tasks they need to accomplish in such a short period of time and it becomes overwhelming and drains the underlying happiness and excitement it should bring. I know this example is weird, and possibly precarious, but it works for my point because...

While I can't speak for her, it appears my cousin really micromanaged her wedding.  That is, she broke it down into bits and pieces that were much more easily manageable.  She got things done and planned as they needed to, figuring out important things first and letting the rest follow.  I really never saw my cousin overly stressed about the wedding because she managed it so well.  In fact, she was nearly done with preparations almost a year before she tied the knot.  Her and her now husband took control of the matter and didn't let it control them.  They broke down the behemoth of planning in to manageable minions of tasks. By doing so, they didn't necessarily overwhelm themselves and the process became much more efficient..

Another example, and maybe more easy to relate with, would be learning an instrument; say the guitar, for instance.  You aren't going to simply pick up a guitar and learn it in the same day.  If you're some prodigy, you win, but for us simpletons it doesn't work like that.  If you except it to be that easy you have another thing coming.  Instead, we need to learn to break it down into goals.  As in, today I'm going to learn how to tune it properly. Or, today I'm going to learn how to hold it or strum it properly. Then learn to play a key, then a chord, then a song, etc.  Breaking it down in the manner does two things.  First, it makes the task much more manageable to where you are gaining levels instead of trying to conquer the entirety of the situation.  Secondly, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and keeps you motivated as you go along.

The same could be said with organizing a room.  Can you do it all in a day? Most definitely,  However, thinking that you have to do it in one sitting could cause you to prolong the task or not do it efficiently.  You may just move the disorganization to another room or do it inefficiently.  Instead, I posit it'd be much easier and more efficient if you broke it down into something along the lines of, "Okay, I'm going to solely focus on this area."  You might not get it done at one time but it suddenly becomes more manageable.  If you break it down you will see the improvement in front of your eyes and your success rate will succeed.  This point brings me to something that is absolutely, undeniably crucial.

Consistency

Micromanaging, I think, helps makes tasks easier in the long run, but consistency is key for ultimate success. These two things coupled together make a powerful team.  If something is broken down into more manageable portions, you are more likely to keep doing it.  How do students do well in school? They study often. How do athletes (naturally) stay at the top of their game? They train and practice.  How do chefs become five star restaurant head chefs? They cook often.  People don't improve overnight.  Your life isn't (minus the obvious exceptions) likely to change overnight.  Things happen and people change because of consistency.  You have to have the moxie to keep at it.

I'd like to share a story I heard from a YouTube video (I've already told my family this a few times, I know).  This guy's wife went to a fitness class and saw a man there who was in the 300-350 lb range.  She said he could barely walk, was breathing heavily, and didn't look like he'd make it.  After one class, she thought about getting him kicked out because she worried his health would be a liability for the class.  The next day, she saw him again, struggling to keep up, swaying back and forth.  The woman (the storyteller's wife) ended up not going back to the class for another year (he never explained why).  When she went a year later, she noticed the heavy man was no longer in the class.  It took her until the end of the class, but she eventually noticed that the once 300-350 lb man was suddenly well over 100 lbs lighter.  He was transformed so much that he was one of the top performers in the class and nearly unrecognizable to the woman.  The key? Consistency.  Every day at 6 p.m. the man would go to the class.  He didn't make excuses, he didn't give up.  Eventually results happened thanks to his mettle and consistency.  That's so awesome to think about!

If you make something too grandiose, it's really hard to stay consistent.  This guy didn't all of the sudden become a workout warrior.  Instead, he found a class, one class!, and stuck with it.  If you want to make a change, you have to stick with it. Period.  I just think breaking it down and making it manageable makes it easier to keep the consistency.

We can gain a skill, we can learn something new, we can change your life.  We just have to be persistent.

Bonus fun

Nerd alert: I've recently been reading some exerts from a book titled, A User's Guide to the Brain. It's really quite interesting, and I can't help but think one tidbit of information from it is really relevant to this post.  The brain is a very malleable entity; meaning it has the ability to change and grow.  We have the ability to develop new neural connections, which allows us to form new memories, skills, etc.  Interestingly, though, we sometimes don't give the brain a chance to truly fortify these new connections.  According to the book, which is written by a neurologist, if you spend an amount of time learning a task, you need to allow your brain time to cement what you learned.  If you go on to something that's equally mentally strenuous or stimulating, you run the risk of not properly immersing what you learned into long term memory. For instance, I believe he used an example of trying to learn a sport like soccer then going right from that to trying to learn lyrics to a new song.  The movements soccer requires won't become as natural if have conflicting interests within your brain as opposed to allowing it to really soak in the information. Point at hand: Don't overdo it.

That seems to back up the notion that we need to break things down.  For one, it saves us time.  For two, it seems to be more efficient.  And finally, it affords us a better opportunity to retain and succeed.

Conclusion

Yes, certain things can be done right away and all at once, but those aren't the things I'm talking about.  It might be hard to conceptualize breaking things down because you think you can do more but think about it this way.

If you spend twenty minutes daily (yes, everyday) learning the guitar, you have a couple things going for you.

• Twenty minutes is manageable and doesn't take out a large portion of your day.
• You consistently work with the guitar, which allows you to develop a comfortability with it.
• While it will take time, you will be taking things in stride and allowing yourself to retain what you've learned.
• You will gradually see results. Tangible results.

You could spend more time or less, but the key is finding something that will prevent you from the dreaded excuse or procrastination.  It just makes sense to me that these items allow people to really take an effective active role in finding improvement.

Could I be wrong? Of course.  I think it's worth a shot though to find the working formula and be an active player rather than sit on the sidelines as others pass by...