Who Is Your John Galt?

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

“Who is John Galt?” These are the opening words of Atlas Shrugged, the seminal novel by Ayn Rand. The question sets up a mystery that Rand gradually reveals throughout the next 1100 pages.

But it is also a very telling question, asking each reader to decide who and what John Galt really is to them. In this sense, Atlas Shrugged is a work of interactive fiction. It requires the reader to take a personal stand regarding the characters, situations, and philosophy of the book. Rand did not want her readers to absorb her message passively, but to become intellectually and emotionally involved with the story and her philosophy.

Atlas Shrugged is the story of what happens to the world when the top creative and intellectual people “go on strike”. They refuse to use their minds to support a corrupt government and a society that glorifies mediocrity. John Galt is the man behind the scene (for most of the novel) who starts this revolution.

Who – or What – Else is John Galt?

Here are a few of the beliefs people in Atlas Shrugged hold about him:

• John Galt is the destroyer, the unseen force who tears civilization apart by removing the greatest creative and productive minds from the world.
• John Galt is the idealized symbol of man as a creative, intelligent, competent, and above all productive species. He uses his mind and his body to build and create great works.
• He is uninterested in scientific discovery; he would rather find a way to make money from his ideas.
• John Galt? He is the man who said that he would stop the motor of the world… and did.
• In a world of relative morality, vacillation, and uncertainty, John Galt holds absolute, fixed moral beliefs. He knows exactly what he wants, and what is right. “A is A”, he states unequivocally. “Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it, which is thinking.”
• John Galt is an arrogant, egotistical son of a bitch who doesn’t care about anyone except himself.

Who is John Galt to you? Your answer tells a lot about who you are and how you see yourself.

Is the Right Right?

Was Ayn Rand liberal or conservative? She rejected both labels, as well as the term “libertarian”. Rand scholar Chris Michael Sciabarra wrote, “The left was infuriated by her anti-communist, pro-capitalist politics, whereas the right was disgusted with her atheism and civil libertarianism.”

These days Ayn Rand is most often quoted by ultra-conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the Tea Party Movement. These are not my kind of people, although I have a number of conservative friends. I consider the political and religious right to be demagogues with no respect for personal freedom or individuality.

However, I can’t really argue with their view of John Galt, Ayn Rand, and Atlas Shrugged. The objectivist philosophy – that reason must have precedence over platitudes – is a conservative philosophy. John Galt argues that granting wealth as a reward for labor and creative work is the only true virtue. Charity to people who will not, or cannot, work to make a living is the greatest sin. On the surface, Atlas Shrugged is a condemnation of the policies of the Democratic Party, and particularly of the liberal left wing.

The Leeches

Atlas Shrugged is a big, complicated book. It says much more than that worthless people are leeches on the spirits and production of valuable people. It also contains gangsters, people who consciously take advantage of the system to steal from rich and poor, smart and stupid, industrialists and welfare recipients alike. I see many of the people who wave Atlas Shrugged as a banner as belonging more with the gangsters than the heroes. They agree with Ayn Rand that their labor should not be used to support the stupid or the poor, but they are quite happy to take more than their own fair share at the expense of others.

These are the hypocrites who are far more dangerous than the merely incapable. They are the ones who will point a gun at your head or mine to make us agree with their rules, pay lip service to their gods, and sacrifice our ability and creativity to feed them and their friends. These are the true villains, but they cannot recognize their own villainy.

My John Galt… And Yours

Who is my John Galt? He is a man of very high intellect and even higher integrity. He works incredibly hard at any task he takes on. He is someone who is never satisfied with the status quo, but instead always wants to experiment, learn, create new things, and improve. Although he chose not to reveal his amazing motor to the world, he could not be satisfied until he had completed its design, tested it, and improved on it even more. To the extent that I have spent my life learning, creating, and solving problems, I have something of John Galt in me. In my insistence on always telling the truth and striving to do what is right, John Galt is by my side.

Galt would shake his head in disappointment at the times I have given up, or chosen entertainment over productive work, but he would respect my refusal to do mediocre work when that might have been enough to “get by”. I might not receive an invitation to Galt’s Gulch, but I can still hold my head high for what I have done and for what I will still do in the future.

Who is your John Galt? What are you doing to live up to his standards? Can you honestly say, as he expected anyone worthy of his standards to do, “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine?” Will you find the best within you, and make it better? That is the challenge of Atlas Shrugged, and just as much the challenge of the true Hero.

“Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” – John Galt in Atlas Shrugged

Tags: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, John Galt, Life Advice
Posted in Life Advice | 3 Comments »

Tanks for Leading – Five Leadership Lessons from MMO Tanking

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

What is a leader? A century ago, we might have said, “He’s the boss, the man in charge.” Back then, most people did routine jobs and needed someone in charge to tell them what to do.

We are in the 21st Century now; times and people have changed. Most of us are skillful and well educated. We know how to do our jobs, and for the most part, we enjoy doing them. We don’t need bosses – We need leaders.

There is a parallel in fantasy games. When we created Quest for Glory, the Warrior had a simple role. He was strong, good with weapons, well armored, and perhaps not too bright.

Those times are no more. In the School for Heroes, the Fighter has become the Warrior who leads others to greatness. In MMO (massively multiplayer online) games like World of Warcraft, the fighter has become the ‘tank.’ A tank has more responsibility than anyone else on the team.

Tanks have five main responsibilities: They need to lead by example, inspiring the rest of their team. They need to survive and overcome injury and other setbacks. They need to act as the first line of defense, protecting the other team members. They need to divide the opposition so that the party never faces more than it can handle. And most of all, they need to encourage and support their team so that everyone does their jobs well.

In other words, a great tank must be a leader.

Here are some lessons that every good tank – and every good leader – needs to know.

Lead by Example

The best tanks know their own role thoroughly and understand the abilities of the other players. They don’t tell another player how to play, but they provide clear direction so that everyone works together. They choose which targets should be “crowd-controlled” (stunned, put to sleep, trapped, etc.) and which should be the first “kill targets”. Then they focus on their own job and trust the rest of the team to play their roles.

The best leaders are right there in the trenches with their troops, doing their own jobs competently and effectively. They give general direction without trying to micro-manage every task. They act more like knowledgeable co-workers than bosses, and the people working with them can see that the leader is right there working hard. When someone on the team has a question, the leader answers promptly and concisely.

Take a Lickin’, But Keep On Tickin’

The tank’s main job is to stand up under fire. He might be able to withstand four or five enemies better than anyone else in the party can handle one. The other players will do their jobs better if they know they are safe. This role starts with good equipment and character abilities, but continues with skillful timing and play. Is a big attack coming? Then use a mitigation talent. Is that attack a powerful area effect? Then move out of the area! Don’t just stand there and stress your healer’s ability.

The business equivalents to stamina and mitigation are tenacity, resilience, and flexibility. Is a supplier late with a critical component? Respond by changing the production sequence so that part is needed last. Or temporarily get a substitute from an alternate supplier. Are creditors late with their payments, or are they on Net 60 payment terms? Make sure you have the tenacity of sufficient cash reserves so that you can continue to produce while waiting for payment.

Dance the Masochism Tango

MMO tanks have many ways of attracting the enemy’s attention. They can “taunt”, they can do a sweeping attack that angers everyone, they may be able to daze or stun the enemies for a few seconds, and they can move around so that the rest of the team has a safer area in which to fight. To be a great tank, you have to be a little bit of a masochist – You have to want the enemy to hate you and to hurt you. Why? Because you can handle it, and your teammates aren’t as well equipped to survive a heavy onslaught.

Above all, the tank takes responsibility for everyone’s actions, not just his own. A great leader does that too.

Never forget that your job as the leader tank is to keep everyone else in your organization safe. That means you need clear policies that allow others to take appropriate risks and occasionally fail. They need to know that their jobs are safe (as long as they are effective contributors), and that you are their shield against outside critics and job uncertainty. Let your employees and co-workers know that you trust them and that you “have their backs”. If another manager – or an outsider – criticizes your team, take personal responsibility – Don’t blame the people who work for you. You are the tank – You’re tough and you can take the heat.

Pulling Together

An MMO tank is responsible for taking on only what the team can handle. That includes directing crowd control to split up the enemy forces, and “pulling” small groups of enemies so that wandering patrols don’t join them. If you are storming a castle, you will do better if you first take out the sentries one by one than if you charge down the middle yelling, “Leeroy Jenkins!”

A business leader knows what she and her team can handle. She tracks performance and uses the results to plan future projects. She works with the team to break complex jobs into manageable tasks. She lets her team direct the schedule for individual jobs, but she keeps track of the results. If the team is having trouble meeting a milestone, she works with them to renegotiate the schedule and to further divide the tasks so that everyone can meet their goals. When you pull together, everyone on the team wins.

Support the Team

A World of Warcraft player named Jadden from the U.S. Argent Dawn realm posted this wonderful article, “I met an Elitist Tank last night” on the WoW forums. Stop for a minute and read it. Jadden talks about two types of players – the ones who would rather put people down, and those who are willing, ready, and able to help lift them up. A great tank supports the team, encourages players to improve without cutting them down, and makes sure that individual contributions are recognized and encouraged.

I’ve worked with people who believed that all managers suck, and that you just have to keep your head down and try to survive. That isn’t how people accomplish great projects. Real leaders do not tear down their teams and leave them working in fear. The best leaders act as resources and tools to help the team do great work. They listen more than they demand, and they act decisively on what they hear. If the team needs training, the leader arranges it. If their development tools are inadequate, the leader purchases new ones or schedules time and people to create better tools. They don’t say, “If you had any talent or skill, you would get the job done with what you have.” They listen, they learn, and they support the team.

Rule #1: The Players Must Have Fun

It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing an MMO or directing a project team. When everyone is relaxed and enjoying what they’re doing, they will perform better. As the leader, you will have a lot more fun when your team is having fun. The rules of tanking go far beyond the game. You can waste your energy complaining about the idiots around you, or you can transform them into smarter, nicer, and more helpful people. Lead by example. Help them learn to improve their outlook and performance. Being a jerk is self-destructive; helpful people have more fun.

You don’t have to wear plate armor and carry a shield to be a great tank. You just have to want the team to win and work hard to help them get there. Your team members will see the difference. There is nothing quite like hearing, “Tanks for being a leader” from the people you’ve helped to do great work.

Tags: Leadership, Life Lessons, Warrior, World of Warcraft
Posted in Game Design, Life Advice | No Comments »

Let Bartlet Be Bartlet: Seven Things I Learned by Watching The West Wing

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Lori and I have rarely watch television, but a few shows are worth re-watching. Currently at the top of our list is The West Wing, a political drama that ran on network television between 1999 and 2006. The U.S. President and his staff have their offices in the West wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., hence the series title.

The West Wing series gives us an intimate look at the lives and work of fictional President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet and his senior staff. These people are true believers. They helped Bartlet win the election and now serve as his staff because they are passionate about creating meaningful change in the world. Every member of the West Wing staff is a true Hero. They also have an outspoken liberal agenda and often have trouble convincing Congressmen and Senators to vote for their proposed legislation.

Here are seven important lessons I picked up from watching the series:

Let Bartlet be Bartlet

As a Democratic President with a hostile Republican Congress, Jed Bartlet often had to choose between doing what he believed to be right versus doing what seemed to be politically expedient. Whenever his staff advised him to do the latter, the President came across as weak, and he lost ground in the polls. When they let him stand up for his beliefs, even though he made political enemies, the public respected him more. The staff realized that they had to let Bartlet be himself – a man of strong principles and vision.

Be yourself. You may compromise on minor issues and where you don’t have a strong opinion, but when it comes to the things that really matter, say what you mean and mean what you say. You might not win every battle, but make sure you fight passionately for the most important ones.

Great Results come from Really Hard Work

On The West Wing, the senior White House staff work from early morning until late at night nearly every day, even on most weekends. Like Alice in Through the Looking Glass, they need to run as fast as they can just to stay in one place, and twice as fast to get anything done. The President and his staff don’t just show up for work each day; they put everything they have into their work.

Important work doesn’t do itself. If you want extraordinary results, you have to put in much more than ordinary effort to achieve them. Creative work is no exception – Images of writers frequently show them near a wastebasket overflowing with the words that didn’t quite work. Today we do it digitally, but we still discard thousands of words and multiple drafts before a finished article hits the Web, book, or magazine.

The computer game industry is known for a lack of “work-life balance”. Programmers and other developers regularly spend 50 hours or more in the office every week. They don’t always do it just because management orders them to work overtime. They do it because they love what they are doing. I know a Nurse Practitioner who works equally long hours at her job. Great results come from people who go the extra mile to make them great. They do it because they care.

Choose Your Words Carefully

Some of the great crises in The West Wing come out of a few careless words. Some of these are jokes, others simply ordinary phrases that seem to take on additional meaning out of context. One plot point hinges on whether the Press Secretary asked the President, “Is there anything else I need to know?” or “Is there anything else I should know?” Other stories become blown out of proportion when one of the staffers makes an offhand joke about them.

I love making word plays and jokes, and sometimes that backfires. Beware of joking about a topic that someone else takes very seriously. They are likely to take your words as mockery or insults. Think about what you say before you say it. People rarely have much perspective or sense of humor about the things that consider important. Their agenda is not yours; you may need to do a little role-playing to empathize with their position.

Making a Mistake is not the End of the World

The West Wing staff members are really smart people, but they make plenty of mistakes. One character is an alcoholic, another falls in love with a prostitute, and even the President has secrets. When some of the staff are pressured to resign, the President supports them. He knows that loyalty, intelligence, and commitment to doing good count for more than anyone’s past mistakes. As a result, they remain fiercely loyal to the President and each other when events challenge them.

We all make mistakes. Most of them are trivial, but some of them hurt other people or ourselves. As the saying goes, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” If you want to live a valuable life, you must take many risks. Pretty much by definition, you will fail at some of them. When you make a mistake, admit it and move on to the next challenge. When you see someone make a mistake, accept it, help out if you can, but don’t dwell on it. If you aren’t making any mistakes, you aren’t doing enough with your life.

Character Counts

Any time the West Wing characters try to compromise their ideals to win, they end up losing. They succeed only by having absolute integrity and passion for their beliefs. The opposition might break the unwritten rules and use underhanded tactics, but heroes need to be above reproach and fight for the things that matter.

That seems a little unfair, but it balances out. Good guys get some compensating advantages. Heroes have the strength of their conviction and usually more support from others than the villains get. It doesn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative. People with integrity and the strength of conviction are the ones who get things done. Besides, every time you cheat, you burn a little hole in your brain and soul; do it enough and you will forget what you’re fighting for. You will also lose any trust or respect from the people around you.

Just because You are Passionate does not give You the Right to be Arrogant

Some of the toughest fights the White House staff face are against members of their own party. A Black inner-city Congressman votes against a gun control bill because it is poorly written and he believes that passing it will make it harder to pass stronger legislation.

When your friends stop supporting you, it’s time to listen to them and find out why. Stop and re-examine your beliefs from time to time. Do you still accept the premises that led to them? Don’t be arrogant. There are a lot of other really smart people out there, and you can’t learn from them if you are too busy making your own point over and over.

Learn to Listen

There are very few real villains in the world. Most people truly believe in what they say and do. The West Wing staff maintains a tradition of opening their doors to the public on “Big Block of Cheese Day” each year. The staffers think that listening to “crackpots” is a waste of their time, but many of the visitors have important things to say. Each is passionate about his or her message, and some of their ideas really matter.

Every meaningful decision has social, political, environmental, economic, and other issues. You might be focusing on one consequence of the decision, but others might consider another side more important. Tax the rich to feed the poor? Sounds great; most of them can afford it. It doesn’t sound so great if you’ve worked harder than everyone else you know for 50 years to get that money. Or if the tax causes your company to downsize, costing jobs for people who are willing and able to work. It still might be a good idea, but it is no longer simple and obvious. That is the origin of most political conflict – Each party focuses on one side of an issue and fails to consider other aspects. The law of unintended consequences tells us that issues are rarely as simple as we think they are. We have to stop, listen, and learn when others have things to say – friends and opponents alike.

Lessons from West Wing

We can all learn from the lessons of The West Wing. The White House staffers are Heroes trying to do what is right in the pressure cooker of the political arena. They need to find ways to get Congress to pass good laws, and they need to get and keep public support for the President and his ideas. We all face similar challenges in making friends and in doing our work competently and ethically. When we hear messages of prejudice and hate, we must find ways to answer them even when it is uncomfortable or dangerous to speak up. That is the only way we can make a positive difference in our work and in the world.

Tags: Heroes, Mistakes, West Wing
Posted in Life Advice | No Comments »

Choose Wisely – the Holy Grail of Decision-Making

Friday, April 15th, 2011

“But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” – The Grail Knight (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

You are in a dusty, cramped room carved centuries ago from the sandstone cliffs of Petra. The chamber is lit only by flickering candles. An ancient Grail Knight stands before you and gestures towards the many cups and goblets. Some are gold, others silver, others inlaid with precious and semi-precious gems.

If you make the wrong choice, both you and your father will die. How will you decide which goblet is the Holy Grail?

Our lives are filled with choices. Once we make one, we can rarely go back and change our mind. If you are like me, you sometimes dread the possibility that you might choose poorly. Sometimes we refuse to choose at all, but that too is a choice, and rarely a satisfying one. Fortunately, most of our choices aren’t really matters of life and death; we just treat them that way.

We make choices because we have goals and priorities. Each decision we make is a reflection of what we consider important. When we agonize over a tough decision, it is tough because we have conflicting priorities. By looking at our choices, we can learn more about our inner motivations. It isn’t easy, and it may be stressful, but life is full of Valuable Learning Experiences… as are games.

The Interesting Route

“We came upon a crossroads, not marked on any map;
We chose the ‘interesting’ route; ‘safe’ had to be a trap.” – Corey Cole, “Can’t Keep Carolan Down”

Nick U Turner was a Game Master who ran a great fantasy role-playing campaign filled with challenging choices and sometimes deadly decisions. In one session, we came to a crossroad as we approached an unknown valley. It had a sign showing that one direction was “Safe” and the other “Interesting.”

Now Nick was one of those devious game masters. It could be perilous to accept anything in his world at face value. Then again, one of the best ways to be devious is to do precisely what you said you’d do, but have the players not believe you. We will never know whether he was offering the choice between an adventure and a shortcut, or if the “safe” route really was a trap. But we managed to convince ourselves of the latter, and an interesting adventure ensued… as advertised.

Real life offers many choices between “safe” or “interesting”, and it is often hard to tell whether a real choice is “safe” or “stupid”. There is nothing wrong with choosing the “safe” path most of the time, but if you always go that way, you will miss a lot of fun, challenge, and excitement. We all need to take the “interesting” route sometimes. The “safe” choice is not a choice at all; it is an abdication of choice. Only your “interesting” choices give you a chance to add value to your own life and to others’ lives.

Smart Choices

“He chose poorly.” – The Guardian of the Grail as Walter Donovan drank from the wrong goblet and died horribly – from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

If you want to lead a valuable life, you will have many difficult choices to make. I’ve written in the past about “Expected Value” or EV, and the professional poker player’s approach to making decisions. This is a rational decision-making process which takes into account the anticipated probability and cost of failure as well as the likelihood and value of success. However, neither poker nor real life is that simple. We do not have perfect information from which to calculate the chances of success and failure. For that, we have to rely on our very fallible instincts.

“How We Decide,” by Jonah Lehrer, is an excellent book that discusses how we make decisions. The process is a combination of rational calculation and emotional response. Our bodies are wired to warn us of danger through physical sensations such as shaking, sweating, and so on. Anticipated success sets off a dopamine reaction that we perceive as pleasure and excitement. These quick reactions are wonderful in a crisis, when a slow decision could be fatal. But they can be misleading when we need to find the best long-term solution.

Smart choices require us to pay attention to our instincts while also using rational thought. Sometimes we need to override our natural desire for a short-term gain in order to ensure long-term benefits. We also have to make a conscious effort to discard false influences on our thinking. As investors, we are warned that, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results,” but we often believe it is. And that makes sense – We also hear that, “Experience is the best teacher.” That is true in the long run, but we are overly influenced by what has happened to us most recently.

When we get lucky, or someone compliments us, we get a surge of pleasure that influences our next decision. We are more likely to say “Yes” to a question or take a risk. When we have a loss, or failure, or are criticized, we become depressed. Then we are more likely to say “No” or to avoid taking another chance. If we were out in the wild foraging for food, those would be good instincts. They aren’t so hot in our modern, complicated lives. Most of the time our next decision has very little to do with the previous one or to what just happened to us. But we act as though everything is related, and sometimes make very bad decisions as a result.

The only way to overcome this is to be aware of it. If you catch yourself becoming angry, stop and think about it. Anger and depression are not good environments for making wise choices. If you’re really happy, that’s a little better, but can also prove costly. This isn’t easy. We are servants of our emotions, and they are useful when we need to make a quick decision, but they get in the way of careful choices. Stop for a moment between tasks. Break the chain of false cause and effect.

Don’t Be So Sure

We tend to discount or ignore information that contradicts what we already believe to be true. This is known as “confirmation bias” and is one of the reasons for the permanent gap between liberal and conservative politicians, people of different religions, and so on. Successful people are able to put aside what they “know” to be true when new information tells them something else. We aren’t very good at this, so somehow we have to break the pattern.

Jonah Lehrer writes, “The only way to counteract the bias for certainty is to encourage some inner dissonance.” Be open to new ideas, especially when your first reaction is to ignore them. You may realize that your preconceptions were incomplete or just plain wrong. Shake up your certainty and listen before you leap.

A Hero’s Choice

“You chose… wisely.” – Guardian of the Grail, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”

We make tough decisions all the time never knowing whether we are making the right choice. But we can use experience to help us decide on each new decision. In my case, I know that Quest for Glory, Castle of Dr. Brain, and Shannara would not exist if I had chosen the “safe” path of working at “regular” programming jobs. Perhaps I would have made the jump years later and created some different games. But at some point, we have to take that leap of faith to realize our potential.

A Hero does not sit back and play it safe. Like Indiana Jones, a Hero takes worthwhile risks for big results. He uses his knowledge and wisdom to help decide – What kind of man first used the Grail? – but in the end, he makes the decision and lives (or dies) with the results. If the gamble fails, the Hero learns from the failure, but never quits. He just chooses more carefully and correctly the next time.

Don’t be afraid of making a difficult decision; fortunately, very few of yours will result in a horrible and painful death. Choices give you the chance to change your destiny. Make the most of your choices to make a positive difference in the world.

Tags: choices, Decisions, Indiana Jones, Last Crusade
Posted in Life Advice | 2 Comments »

2011: The Year in Preview

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

It is traditional at this time of year to look back and recall the events of the last year. I prefer to look forward. What would we like to happen in the upcoming year? And what can we do to help make these things happen?

In a previous article, we talked about “New Year’s Commitments” instead of Resolutions. This time, maybe we can raise the stakes. Instead of committing to some small change in your own life, why not commit to something that will help change the world?

Part of making a commitment is visualizing the result of committing to it. When we put that into the time frame of “What shall I accomplish this year?” that means we need to visualize what will happen in 2011. Instead of reviewing the previous year, we can preview the upcoming year! So get out your notebook and your crystal ball and look at what 2011 could be.

Consumers vs. Creators

The future is what we make of it. The problem is that collective word “we”. Most of us think it really means “they”, because there are a lot of “them” and only one “me”. But that’s an illusion.

Most of “them” do very little to create the future. “They” watch, consume, and occasionally criticize. The average person’s creativity is limited to linking a cute picture or fun YouTube video to their friends. There is a world of difference between a Beatles fan and The Beatles or even a garage band that occasionally puts on a show.

It’s the difference between consuming and creating. Consumption has some value – It rewards the creators so that they can continue creating. It can also be a stepping stone – a gateway drug if you will – towards creation. You may start by copying someone else’s music or drawing, then using what you’ve learned to compose your own songs or making your own art.

There is a serious challenge to becoming a Maker. It takes work. It takes a lot of practice, hard work, and the discipline to channel that work into learning, improving, and creating. And that is why each of us who is willing to do that work has much more impact on the future than the masses of lazy people and rote followers.

We > They

There is another way to make our “we” into something much bigger than each individual “me”. That way is to reach out and enroll others in your creative vision. Do you have a project in mind that is just too big for you to handle by yourself? Don’t let that stop you!

Start by building something, a prototype or a plan. Get it down on paper or a model. Then show it to other people you respect, people who show more than a glimmer of being Makers themselves. Share your vision in a way that involves them and makes them want to become part of it. There is a “me” in “team” – Someone needs to start and inspire the team to work in a coordinated way. If you care enough and put in the work to create, you can be that “me” who matters.

When “we” are a group of people who work together to create, we have far more impact than millions of “they” who just want to consume. The creators and producers move the world; everyone else just rides on it.

Happy New Year!

When you’re making your commitments for 2011, think about what really makes you happy. Sure, there is joy in listening to great music… but isn’t it even more fun when you’re dancing or singing along? That’s action and participation, not just consuming.

Would you rather spend your hours reading books and playing computer games… or getting out there and writing your own? You probably can’t waltz into Blizzard and say, “I am ze greatest game designer in ze world, and I shall create your next masterpiece!” In fact, neither can I. But you can start in that direction.

Write a blog. Practice drawing or painting. Write a poem or a song. Learn to program and create a simple game or toy. Study carpentry and build a dog house or a storage shed. Get out there and do something with your life. Learn, practice, apply, and create. It isn’t for the benefit of all those consumers, but for yourself – Learning, growing, and doing are fun!

Have a happy new year, and may this be the year when you discover a new, powerful, creative you.

Tags: Future, New Year, Planning for the Future
Posted in Life Advice | 4 Comments »

Pushing the Limits

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Space: The Final Frontier. We’ve dreamed about it throughout history, and in the last Century we began to creep tantalizingly close to the Moon and the planets. Almost fifty years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 1. Less than ten years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

And yet the journey has not been an easy one. The first three Apollo astronauts – Grissom, Chaffee, and White – died in a training accident before the first Apollo took flight. Fourteen astronauts and scientists perished in the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Transcripts of our spaceflights reveal multiple problems and system failures on every launch.

The real story of the space program is a tale of creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance. When people were ready to give up, a few leaders and believers pushed the rest to keep going. Working as a team, they focused on the problems that could be solved instead of searching for blame for the mistakes that had already occurred. There is no better example than what happened on Apollo 13.

Apollo 13: Crisis in Space

NASA Director: “This could be the worst disaster NASA’s ever faced.”
Gene Kranz: “With all due respect, Sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.”
- Dialogue from the Apollo 13 film

On April 11, 1970, forty years ago, the Apollo 13 mission set out with three men to study the moon’s surface. The mission motto, “Ex Luna Scientia” – Out of the moon, knowledge – explained why we needed to return to the moon even though a few astronauts had already walked upon its surface.

What began as “routine” – the third expedition to land men on the moon – turned into a harrowing adventure.

First the ship’s main inline engine developed problems that caused it to shut down earlier than planned. The astronauts corrected for this by using the auxiliary outboard engines and the mission continued.

The second problem was far more serious. Faulty insulation and other factors caused one of the two oxygen tanks to catch fire and rupture. The remaining oxygen tank failed. The electrical fuel cells shut down. And then, an explosion blew out part of the ship’s hull.

A spaceship 200,000 miles from the Earth had lost most of its oxygen supply and electrical power. There seemed to be little chance of any of the Apollo 13 crew surviving.

What CAN We Do?

“I don’t care about what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do.” – Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 (the film)

The Apollo 13 crew used the Lunar Module as a “lifeboat” during the four-day return to Earth. But it was not intended to be used in space, and many of the supplies – including essential air filters – were inaccessible. The Command Module had air filters, but they did not fit the sockets on the LM.

It was a classic “square peg in a round hole” problem, and the usual answer is, “You can’t make a square peg fit in a round hole.” The engineers solved the problem by thinking outside the box. They had the astronauts connect the filter with a spacesuit air return hose, one of the few “spare parts” on board.

Not enough power? Ground control ordered the crew to shut off all non-essential circuits including most of the instruments. From that point on, they were flying blind. Could the ship even survive contact with the Earth’s atmosphere with its damaged hull? The odds still looked bad.

But long odds have a way of confounding the bookmakers. Faced with multiple challenges, each seemingly insurmountable, the engineers on the ground team and the astronauts solved each one in turn, and Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth.

My take on the Apollo 13 “disaster” is this: People faced a crisis and overcame it. They – and by extension all of us – beat seemingly impossible odds to win. Apollo 13 never made it to the Moon, but it made it back to Earth and all three astronauts survived.

No Limits

“There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.” – Ronald Reagan

The space program has been expensive, but its value is incalculable. We have an International Space Station, an orbiting telescope, and men have set foot on the moon. The world would not be what it is today without the technologies and spirit of innovation that began with our need to go beyond the surface of the Earth and visit strange new worlds.

What limits have you set on your own life? Are you “playing it safe” – afraid that striving for more will be too risky? Are you waiting for a miracle to turn your life around?

There are no miracles, but there are people who regularly do what others consider impossible. They use their creativity, their inner strength, and a lot of hard work to turn the impossible into “merely very difficult.” Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth, and four more Apollo missions successfully landed men on the moon. There are no limits to creativity or to where we can go with it. There are no limits to where you can go when you believe, commit, and create.

(The 1995 film, “Apollo 13″, starring Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell retells the story of heroism, adventure, leadership, and teamwork on the Apollo 13 spaceflight. It is well worth watching or seeing again.)

Tags: Apollo 13, Life Advice, NASA, Pushing Limits
Posted in Life Advice | No Comments »

Dare to Be Wicked!

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

“Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” – Galinda, Wicked (the musical)

Are you tired of being a goody-two-shoes hero and having nobody notice? Do your greatest deeds seem to have no effect at all?
Maybe you need a change. Maybe it’s time to be wicked.

Not Good Enough

“No good deed goes unpunished; that’s my new creed.” – Elphaba in Wicked

The Law of Unintended Consequences warns us that any action we take can lead to unexpected – and sometimes disastrous – results. Help a little old lady across the street? Bad move, kid. You’ll probably both get hit by a drunk driver. If that doesn’t end your adventuring career, the little old lady will probably decide it’s all your fault and sue you.

Give money to a beggar? Please! Most of those guys park their Mercedes around the corner and make a fortune out of weak-willed wimps like you. A cop in L.A. once told me that the guy who I just tipped for washing my windshield makes over $100,000 a year doing that. And he probably collects welfare too. Stop supporting those leeches and maybe some of them will get jobs. The rest will starve. See? A much easier solution to the problem.

If every good deed you attempt turns sour, maybe they aren’t quite as good as you think they are. Maybe you can do more good by turning wicked.

Disobey!

“That government is best which governs least.” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“Ain’t no freedom here, not unless you take it, ain’t no justice here, unless you make it all.” – Leslie Fish, “No High Ground”

Thoreau and many others have argued that we cause more harm than good by supporting an unjust government. He felt that he could not in good conscience pay the poll tax – even if most of it paid for worthwhile programs – as long as any of it was spent on the Mexican-American War or on supporting slavery. Thoreau was willing to pay a tax for a specific useful purpose, such as highway taxes that were used to improve local roads. But he would not pay a penny that might be used for anything he considered evil. Thoreau believed in passive resistance, even in living a simpler lifestyle so that you won’t earn enough to be taxed.

Almost 100 years after the Civil War, blacks in the American South were still treated as second-class citizens. If one white person got on a crowded bus in Alabama, black passengers were required to empty an entire row of seats and stand so that the white passenger would not have to sit with blacks.

Then on December 1, 1955, one woman changed the rules. Rosa Parks had recently attended a talk on civil disobedience and refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. She paid a price – She was arrested and fined, and later lost her job. But her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key moment in the civil rights movement.

When Martin Luther King was later arrested for “hindering a bus” based on his support of the boycott, he said, “I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice.” King was a fan of Thoreau’s On Civil Disobedience, and he didn’t just read the words. He acted on the principles he believed in.

The bad guys can handle a few dissidents, but when a protest turns into a movement, and the movement becomes the majority, there comes a tipping point. The rockslide turns into an avalanche. But first some people need to be wicked enough to resist authority. And then the people who agree with them, but don’t want to rock the boat, need to start rocking anyway. Change is never easy.

Effective Anti-Heroes

“To those who’d ground me, take a message back from me. Tell them how I’m defying gravity.” – Elphaba

Stop and think about the great heroes of the past. Were they conformists, playing by the rules and doing what they were told? Hell no!

For every goodness-and-light Mother Teresa, the list of heroes includes multiple lawbreakers and outright criminals. Robin Hood “robbed from the rich”. Mahatma Gandhi based his philosophy on Thoreau; he used passive resistance and civil disobedience to break India free from British rule and to make major changes in Indian society. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin? The U.S. was founded on civil disobedience and armed revolt.

How about Batman as the Dark Knight? Rambo? Dirty Harry? We love heroes who break the rules.

You think you know the story of William Tell, who famously shot an apple off his son’s head. But why did he take that risk? He refused to bow to the overlord’s hat in the town square, and the overlord – Albrecht Gessler – decided to make an example of Tell. Later, Tell used the same crossbow to kill Gessler, sparking a rebellion that led to Switzerland’s independence from Austria. One man took action and became the tipping point of a revolution.
When you know the rules are wrong, it’s time to stop playing by them. Sometimes it just takes one match to light the fires of change. Listen to your conscience and act on what you hear.

No One Mourns the Wicked

“No one mourns the wicked. Through their lives, our children learn – what they miss, when they misbehave” – Chorus in Wicked

A successfully wicked life won’t come easy. You may find that you are an outcast from society, and that people are hunting you with torches and pitchforks. You have to accept that your civil disobedience may make you extremely unpopular.

I was inspired to write this article by the musical theater version of Wicked, based on a popular novel by Gregory Maguire. That book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is in turn based on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Wizard of Oz film. I’ve read Maguire’s book, but it was the musical that really brought the story to another level.

Wicked is about two teenage girls, Galinda and Elphaba, who become College roommates at Shiz University in Oz. You know them better as Glinda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda is the popular, beautiful blonde who plays by the rules, while Elphaba is the ugly outcast who has always had to fight to survive.

The book and play are from Elphaba’s viewpoint and question what it means to be wicked. In fact, Elphaba’s “wickedness” is really her uncompromising idealism and her resulting civil disobedience. The Wizard of Oz is suppressing the intelligent animals of Oz (among others), and Elphaba embarks on a “terrorist” campaign to rescue them and restore them to positions of respect. As a result, Elphaba is vilified and cast as a “wicked witch”. She comes to accept and glory in the title once she realizes that her attempts to play by the rules and “do good” are just not enough in the face of an unjust society.

“All right, enough – So be it, so be it, then: Let all Oz be agreed I’m wicked through and through. . . I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again, ever again.” – Elphaba, “No Good Deed”, Wicked

Unlimited

“I’m through accepting limits, ’cause someone says they’re so. Some things I cannot change, but ’til I try I’ll never know.” – Elphaba

Society’s rules have a purpose, but often that purpose gets twisted by foolish, short-sighted, or simply evil people. Really, who knows better what rules you should follow? Some politician in the capitol, or you?

And why stop with government ordinances? Nature’s laws may not be breakable, but they’re certainly subject to reinterpretation. Is the “Law of Gravity” holding you down? Try defying it with a balloon, or a glider, a helicopter, or a rocketship. Newton’s three laws of thermodynamics? Maybe in the long run you can’t win, break even, or even get out of the game, but that can take a long time. We’ve learned a lot about bending the properties of matter and energy by refusing to accept the basic laws of physics as givens.

If you want to be more than an ordinary man or woman, you need to stop putting limits on yourself. Think about what you could accomplish if you broke all the rules, or at least a few that are holding you back. Aim for the sky and beyond; there’s a whole Universe out there with different rules, and maybe places just waiting for you to make your own rules… then break them too.

Is the wicked life right for you? Until you try, you’ll never know.

“Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil!” – (Unknown via The Paper)

Tags: Civil Disobedience, Elphaba, Life Advice, Rosa Parks, Thoreau, Wicked, Wizard of Oz
Posted in Life Advice | 3 Comments »

The Tipping Point for Heroes

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Q: How many Heroes does it take to change a light bulb?

What can a single Hero do?

Most of us feel pretty powerless much of the time. Our influence seems limited to a few friends, maybe a few visitors to our FaceBook pages. We can do all sorts of heroic deeds, but do they even “amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”? (Casablanca) What’s the point?

The Tipping Point

“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!” – Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network

I first heard the phrase, “the tipping point”, in the 1960′s. In fables, it’s the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. In physics, it’s the principle that a small effect can quickly change an otherwise stable equilibrium. In sociology, we reach the tipping point when an event turns into a movement. It can be positive, as with the peace movement, or negative (a lynch mob).

So, things happen, and sometimes big changes result. What does that have to do with Heroes?
Quite a lot, as it turns out. One person’s willingness to take a stand can make a difference. But first, you have to get mad. Or at least passionate enough to care and to take risks for what you believe in.

If you find yourself questioning the value and impact of your deeds, you might want to read The Tipping Point, a 2000 book by Malcolm Gladwell. The Tipping Point talks about influences that can turn a fad into a social epidemic. Gladwell breaks these down into the “law of the few”, the “stickiness factor”, and the “power of context”. I’m going to look at the law of the few as it applies to The School for Heroes.

The Law of the Few

Thomas Jefferson wrote that, “all men are created equal.” But their influence is anything but equal. We remember Paul Revere’s 1775 “midnight ride” during the American Revolution, but few remember William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, or others who rode out on the same mission. That’s largely due to Longfellow’s famous poem about the event. But according to Gladwell, there is another critical reason – Paul Revere was one of the “few” who cause an event to tip.

Paul Revere was a man with connections. He belonged to multiple social, political, and business groups. He was a respected silversmith among the upper classes in the Boston area. Now if a stranger knocked on your door at 2:00 in the morning to warn you that “the British Regulars are coming,” how would you react? Might your reaction be a little different if the stranger was someone whose name you had heard before, and who had a reputation for being active in civic affairs? That familiarity might make the difference between you barring your door or asking how you could help.

Connecting

Gladwell persuasively argues that some people are connectors who go out of their way to know many people. Others are “mavens” who soak up knowledge and love to share it with other people. A third type are expert salesmen who are great at convincing others to buy, to join, or to take action. All of these people are able to forge strong and effective connections with others.

Where does that leave the rest of us? Are these connectors special people from birth? Are the rest of us doomed to be isolated and unimportant?

I say nay! Connectors, like Heroes, are made, not born. Any of us can work to build up our networks and our social skills to become connectors. It isn’t easy, and it can certainly be uncomfortable, but all of us are capable of creating connections.

I’m not saying you have to run out and join the Lions, the Rotary Club, and the Toastmasters. At least not right away. First make sure you connect with the people you see every day. When you pass someone in the hallway at school or work, how do you react? Do you walk on by, smile, or actually talk to them?

You probably pass a lot of interesting people every day; but how many of them do really know? Find a minute now and again to have a real conversation with someone. You might make a friend for life or discover a new passion. In any case, you will start to forge a connection.

People are used to being ignored and living in their private shells. When someone actually takes the time to listen to them, they are surprised and pleased. You may be in for a surprise too, because most people are actually really interesting once you get to know them. It just takes that first tiny risk, that willingness to listen, that makes a connection possible.

Change

Q: How many Heroes does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Light bulb?? A single Hero can change the world!

What happens when you flip on a light switch? You form a connection. It takes connections all the way down the line, but in the end, there is light.

Those connections don’t “just happen”; every one is the result of a conscious decision. Many people took the time and effort to build that network and provide power. Most of them did it for profit, but so what? The result is light where you want it, when you need it.

Life connections work the same way. You build them one at a time, and you have to spend some time and energy to maintain them. You might meet someone because they say something interesting, because you think you will profit from the connection, or because you find them attractive. They will accept the connection for their own reasons.

But once the connection is forged, it has a life of its own. Signals pass through the nodes in unpredictable ways. When Susan Boyle became an Internet sensation, Lori and I found out about her performance from multiple friends and acquaintances. Today, Lori heard about a video, Love the Way You Lie, from a design blog to which she subscribes. Lori shared it with me because it’s “incredibly powerful”, and now I’m sharing it with you. The video is about domestic violence, but takes care to explain such behavior rather than just demonize it. We would not have heard of it without our network of contacts.

How important is one connection? One of the first comments on that video mentioned that it only had 3 views when he first saw it yesterday, and it’s now up to 900,000. By the time Lori watched it 12 seconds after that comment was posted, the count was up to 1.2 million. Some of those first few viewers must have shared the link with a few of their connections, and it snowballed from there.

Power

“Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none
And by union what we will can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.”
- Ruthie Gorton, based on the UMW Constitution

When scales are in balance, it doesn’t take much to tip them one way or another. Maybe your vote, your words, your actions will not be enough by themselves. But when you connect with others, your combined weight can change the balance.

You can be one of the few who make a difference. Create connections with people, then use your connections to share things that matter to you. When you build real relationships, you will find people who care. Let them know what you are passionate about, and the message may spread.

You have the power to tip the scales of good and evil, justice and injustice. Use your power wisely.

Tags: Life Advice, Malcolm Gladwell, Paul Revere, Tipping Point
Posted in Books, Heroism, Life Advice | 2 Comments »

The Things I Cannot Change

Monday, July 19th, 2010

“What, me worry?” – Alfred E. Neuman

Are you worried? Afraid?

We live in a worrisome world. I grew up worrying about the Bomb, the Vietnam War draft, children starving in Bangladesh, and racial inequity in the Deep South and all around me. We had “atomic bomb drills” in school where they told us to stay away from windows and hide under a desk (as if that would do any good!)

My parents grew up in the Great Depression and worried about where their next meal might come from. They came of age during World War II worrying about the Nazi menace, about Jews and other minorities perishing in death camps, and the possibility of dying in a foreign war. They got through that only to learn of the Communist menace and Nuclear Winter.

My son worries about whether he can create lasting success, whether he is doing enough with the time he has, and that he might die in some completely random event.

We have other fears these days, both general and more personal. Our investments reduced to a fraction of their previous value, friends and family becoming sick or dying, lack of jobs, mice in the woodwork, identify theft, terrorism. Scary stories are in the news every day.

Search for Serenity

“Que Será Será, Whatever will be, will be, The future’s not ours to see, Que Será Será, What will be, will be.” – Doris Day

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” – Albert Einstein

If we let ourselves, it can be easy to let the worries and fears rule our lives – now or at any time.

Are our fears rational? Yes. Are they useful? No.

Bad things will certainly happen in the future. But we cannot predict which bad things will come to pass and we cannot stop them from coming.

There are things we cannot change, and we will live more serene lives if we can learn to accept them. Live in the present, not in the past, nor the future. Deal with the problems and opportunities you have in front of you right now.

We live in the present, not the future. By keeping ourselves grounded in the present, we can deal with the issues that affect us now. We do not have enough time or energy here and now to solve every problem that might – and likely will not – come up in the future.

Find your serenity. Live in the now, not in the mists of what might happen someday. When you do think about the future, focus on the opportunities it will bring, then think about what you can do now to help make them become real.

A Man, A Plan… Wait, I Already Used That One!

“No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke

“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.” – Robert Burns

“It’s an ill plan that cannot be changed.” – Publilius Syrus

I have written previously about the importance of having a plan and of committing it to paper. Unfortunately, many people seem to think that a plan and reality are the same thing. Just as a map is not the same thing as the landscape it describes, a plan is not the result you want to create with it. The purpose of a plan is guidance. When things do not go the way you expected or intended, you can use the plan to remind you of your real goal.

We often mistake what might be for what will be. There are an infinite number of possible futures, and only a few that will actually occur. None of us has the time or energy to plan and prepare for every possible future.

A grandmaster chess player does not analyze every possible outcome of every move he might make. He uses his knowledge and experience to visualize promising moves and positions, then explores the near future of each of those moves. Then he adapts to the changing “world” of the chessboard and the moves his opponent actually makes.

A successful life is played like a great game of chess. Visualize outcomes you would like to see. Consider what you might be able to do now and in the near future that might bring you closer to one of those outcomes. Then make your move. If something unexpected happens, handle it then.

But don’t waste your precious time and energy trying to prevent things you cannot stop. None of us has that much power. We can only work with the present we now have. When the possible futures resolve into a real present, then we can work with that. Until then, we can do no more than hope and do something we hope might nudge our personal futures in the right direction.

Break It Down to Avoid a Breakdown

“I live one day at a time,
I dream one dream at a time;
Yesterday’s dead and tomorrow is blind,
And I live one day at a time.
— Joan Baez

The world is becoming more complex every year. We can allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by that complexity, or we can learn to handle it the way engineers deal with complex systems.

An engineer does not design an entire airplane at once. The designers break the job down into much smaller tasks – the seats, the rudder controls, the radar system, and so on – then each engineering team works on one small piece of the problem until it is finished. They live and work day to day on tasks and problems they can handle.

When your work and choices seem overwhelming, break them down. Don’t try to do everything at once. Pick a task and get it done. Then choose another and do it. When you run out of things you can do right now, spend some time thinking about how you can break a complex job down into bite-sized pieces.

If you have too many choices, write them down and think about your priorities and what you really care about. Maybe some of the things on your “must do” list don’t belong on it at all; maybe they are someone else’s idea of what you should do with your life. Choose the things that matter to you, and spend your time and energy doing those well.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

“Happy is what happens when all your dreams come true.” – Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked

Have you let worries rule your life? It just isn’t worth it; no amount of worrying will prevent or change the future. Worry sucks energy and makes everything harder to do.

Dream some positive dreams, and live right now as though everything is just the way you want it to be. We live in the best of all possible worlds, because it is the only world we have right now. We cannot change the past, but we can learn to live in and love the present.

Accept what you are, and who you are, and use that acceptance to give you strength and energy to do the things you need and want to do right now. Then pick just one of them and do it. The future will take care of itself.

“Don’t worry; be happy!” – Bobby McFerrin

Tags: Life Advice, Worry
Posted in Life Advice | No Comments »

The Point(s) of Life

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

One of the most important features of all games, and especially the game of your life, is a good reward system. You need ways to keep working on your game plan, and good rewards help you stay focused.

The stakes and the rewards for playing the game of your life are as high as you make them.

What’s the Point?

In my Master the Game of Life blog, I talked about running your life as though it is a role-playing game. But sometimes the stress of daily life doesn’t seem very fun. Maybe we just don’t get rewarded enough in real life, and that’s why we run to games where the rewards are easier to see and achieve.

You work very hard to accomplish your goals and it would be nice if someone recognized your efforts. How about yourself? Just as games use point systems to reward accomplishment, try tracking your own “Life Points.” They can add up fast!

Does that seem a little arbitrary? Most game rewards are just as intangible, but still highly addictive. We are hard-wired to get pleasure from rewards, kind words, and winning in any way. Keeping track of your life points will make you feel good. You will also be able to look back and say, “Wow, I really accomplish a lot!” Sometimes we forget just how much we do and achieve every day.

The Achievement Grid

Start out by creating some Achievement Categories. You can base some of these on the goals you laid out last week in your Life Plan. Haven’t started on that yet? There is no time like the present!

World of Warcraft has this set of Achievement Categories:

• Summary
• General
• Quests
• Exploration
• Player vs. Player
• Dungeons & Raids
• Professions
• Reputation
• World Events
• Feats of Strength

This is really a remarkable list in that so much of it applies to real life. I’m not so sure about “Dungeons & Raids,” unless you’re in the police or military, but the rest really work. “Player vs. Player” covers competitive activities such as sports and any sort of multi-player gaming. Yes, games are part of your real life – Their consequences reach outside the game worlds.

Now think about some things you want to accomplish – near-term and far – and fill them in to the appropriate grid categories. You can start out on paper, but I recommend moving your grid to a computer spreadsheet as soon as possible. This will make it easier to add new achievements and to change their categories. More importantly, you can use formulas to total up your points so you can watch them grow over time.

I’d probably add a “Health & Wellness” category. Want to lose weight? Don’t just say it – Track it in your Achievement Grid and award yourself points every time you lose a pound and keep it off. When you reach a goal, such as losing 10 or 20 pounds in a year, mark off a special achievement and give yourself a reward (hopefully not a hot fudge sundae!).

Don’t neglect the “Summary” category. That’s where you will keep the totals and track your most recent accomplishments. One way to do this is to copy any major achievements into the summary section and date them. (“Promoted to store manager 2010 Aug. 29 for 5 points.”) It can serve as a log book tracking your life changes and accomplishments.

Quests – One-Time and Daily

All role-playing games feature quests. You take on many quests in your daily life too. Do you need to get a report ready by Thursday? Treat it as a quest! First decide what you need to acquire to complete it, then begin gathering your quest materials – research and other data that you will need for your report. Work on each of the steps you need to complete – the sections of the report – and track each accomplishment. When you have checked off the last part, you will have completed your quest. You’ll have had more fun and probably finished it ahead of schedule. Not only that, but you can check off (or add) your completed quest to the Achievement Grid and rack up more points!

World of Warcraft and other on-line games offer daily quests to reward players for accomplishing useful tasks. Life has many daily quests too – Report in to work or school, prepare regular nourishing meals, clean your room, and so on. Make sure you include points for daily quests in your achievement system so that you can reward yourself each day for accomplishing them.

Create achievements such as, “Brush my teeth every night for a month,” and do your best to fulfill them. You might want to make these a little flexible so that you don’t “fail” by missing one night. Quests give you goals; they aren’t there to punish you because it took you two or three tries to accomplish them. One noteworthy feature of on-line games is that you can’t really “fail” – If you don’t manage to complete a quest or achievement on the first try, or on the first seven tries – you can keep trying it again until you succeed.

Building Your Reputation

Most online games such track your reputation with various factions. We all know the importance of maintaining a good reputation in real life. In the Reputation section of your grid, list some areas where you want to build and keep a good reputation:

• Clients
• Co-Workers
• Community
• Family
• Friends
• Teammates

Let’s say you volunteer to help clean up a local park. Give yourself a Community Reputation point. Did the dishes without anyone prompting you? That’s sure to gain a Family Reputation point. When you start seeing people smile everywhere you go, you know you’re racking up the Reputation points! You will feel good about yourself and you will find you have a lot of friends you can call on when you need help with a more difficult quest.

Feats of Strength

Some achievements are so special, you may not be able to fit them into any ordinary category. Getting a new job or a promotion is certainly worth some achievement points, but founding a company and helping it go public is a milestone that few people ever accomplish. You should give yourself a trophy for a major life milestone to help you remember the achievement points. This is your personal Hall of Fame for accomplishments you will always remember.

For me, these might include each of my computer game releases, my national bridge championship, the opening of The School for Heroes, and a handful of other events. I give myself an Achievement Point every time I complete a blog article or file my income taxes, but some events are special enough that they deserve their own category.

I find it interesting that World of Warcraft assigns the same number of points to most achievements, the trivial and the incredibly difficult alike. The important thing is to know you achieved something. For a truly impressive task, doing it may be its own reward.

Unlock Greatness

Many games allow you to “unlock” special achievements and more challenging game modes. To do this, you must first accomplish easier goals. Add some unlockable achievements to your life plan. If one goal is to get a job, achieving that should unlock the “Get a Promotion” goal. If you are starting your own business, next you need to unlock “Have a profitable quarter,” then “Have a profitable year,” and so on. If your goal was to cash in a poker tournament, your next goal might be to make the final table, then to win one, then to win three, and so on. Of course, if you win a bracelet at the World Series of Poker, that feat of strength belongs in your Hall of Fame.

You can also do this in reverse. Choose one of your more difficult and challenging goals, then come up with some less ambitious steps that will help you achieve the larger goal. Treat each one of these as a goal to achieve, and “unlock” the big goal as you accomplish the smaller ones. Make sure you add each little quest to your Achievement Point Grid so that you can track and reward yourself when you complete it.

Sharing the Glory

For now, your achievement points will just be a personal motivation and a way of keeping track of what you’ve done. But maybe in a few years, if the idea catches on, we’ll find ways to share our achievements. Maybe it will be a Facebook app or on its own Web site. Maybe you’ll get together with some friends to form a local Achievement Club. Businesses can start rewarding their “Achiever of the Month”.

Until then, the rewards are up to you. Track your achievements and rack up the points. Every time you hit a milestone – 100 or 1000 points – collect a reward to recognize your achievements. All you have to do to live a rewarding life is to recognize that you are worthy of it. You’ll have more point(s) to your life than you could ever imagine!

Tags: Achievement Points, Life Advice
Posted in Life Advice | 2 Comments »