Are you a fan of goals? If so, you’ve probably discovered a major source of happiness is the progression toward a meaningful goal. The more ambitious the goal the better, I thought.
I struggled myself for years by setting too many goals. When goals are beyond our reach, we are ultimately left in despair for not achieving them. Eventually, we ditch the idea of goals all together because of recurring disappointment.
Things changed for me when I discovered the 10 Day Sprint. Expanding the idea further, I came up with The Rule of 10. 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 weeks, and 10 months.
You are about to learn why a successful sprint begins with a cornerstone habit. However, before you pick a cornerstone habit, I want to explain the groove concept.
Water, in flowing, hollows out for itself a channel, which grows broader and deeper; and, after having ceased to flow, it resumes, when it flows again, the path traced by itself before. - William James
Our lives began as a clean slate, void of any grooves. It’s what we do on the slate that creates the grooves. Over the next 10 days, you will begin to carve a groove to get into - by establishing a new habit. 10 days begins with 10 hours. 10 hours begins with 10 minutes, and 10 minutes from 10 seconds… you get the idea.
From the decision we make within those 10 seconds, 10 minutes will follow. Minutes will become hours and hours will become days. Before you know it, you will have carved the outline of your groove and over time, as that groove gets deeper, the effort to ‘get into the groove’ becomes easier. Eventually, it will be effortless.
But do we truly start with a clean slate? Most of us have existing ingrained habits on our slate to overcome before we can redirect our energy to carving a groove.
We know how nature works. Our habits follow this same process. Over the next 10 days, I urge you to pick a cornerstone habit - stick with it - and see how much easier it is after 10 days - after you 'get into the groove.'
Habits begin with a single act. Commit to 10 seconds, then 10 minutes. Eventually you’ll see 10 hours goes by, and in that time you created a new groove! What single act over the next 10 days, could produce a groove that would help you achieve your goal?
Be committed to the intention, but not the specific outcome and you recognize the finish once you arrive.
Schedule time for the habit just as you would a class you'd sign up for in advance. Pick a class that is in demand and one in which failure to show up would result in a penalty. The ping of pain is a stronger motivator than the perk of pleasure.
You can endure practically anything for 10 seconds. Just step onto the path, and the task become easier. It is far more intimidating until we start. Once we start, we can't help but be carried by the momentum of the work. The greatest resistance is at the start. As you get into it the task, the work will becomes the path. You will see your job as the practice of becoming. Becoming the task until the task becomes you. When we shift into a state of being one with the task, it becomes effortless.
Effort is a noun. It refers to a past or future. Effort in action is called practice. What is your best effort? Why would we give a task anything less than our best effort? Anything worth doing is worth doing to the best of our ability. Simply begin the task, give it your best effort, and the task will become easier.
Create a cornerstone habit. A cornerstone habit is one small habit that has a positive impact on other areas of your life. The idea is heavily rooted in the psychology of discipline. Discipline is acting in our best interests despite a desire to do the work you are apprehensive towards. It's about eating the frog when it’s the last thing you want to do.
And here is the main reason most of us fail to achieve the results we want. We want the result, but we don’t want to do the work necessary to obtain the result.
Know that an improvement in one area of our life will often spill over to improvements in other areas of our life. To take over a country, you begin by taking over one house, then one block, then one city. Each successful achievement gives you the confidence to conquer the next, and with the experience of success, your confidence grows.
Confidence is the greatest obstacle. With confidence, you'll step on the path, despite knowing the outcome. Crossing the Sahara
How do you cross the Sahara desert? One oil barrel at a time. Sandstorms wash away the road as you travel on it, so the only way you know you are on track is by finding the next oil barrel and heading toward it. When you get to the next oil barrel, the next will appear. Often times, you can only see the next single oil barrel. The risk of getting lost arises by proceeding when you can't see the next barrel. When the storm is so great that not even the next oil barrel can be seen, all you can do is wait. Heading off into the direction you think it is may get you lost forever.
This concept is powerful. A similar analogy is the ' headlights at night.' When you drive at night, you can only see as far as your headlights allow.
We simply can't foresee the circumstances (problems AND opportunities) ahead. All we can do is focus on the oil barrel and do our best to make it as quickly and gracefully as we can. The problem with long-range goals is that they are out of view. Just like the oil barrels, if we can't see the destination, we can't reach it. Out of sight is out of reach. Out of sight, out of mind.
The opportunity of 10-day sprints is that they exist as the next oil barrel. Do the work and the path will appear. 10-day sprints should push you to the edge of your ability, but achievable given the circumstances (or at least your ability to work within limitations that may exist).
Why don't we always achieve the results we desire? It is a limit of what is known as self-efficacy. Self-Efficacy is your ability to produce a desired result. It is strengthened whenever you overcome obstacles. When we complete a difficult task, our self-efficacy is strengthened.
In yoga, when you are attempting a pose that requires balance, the teacher will often tell you pick a focal point. Without a focal point, you are certain to lose your balance. Even when you close your eyes, you can maintain a focal point.
One reason we lose our focus and ‘fall over’ when attempting a difficult task is because we forget the importance of a focal point. Ever notice how when you sit down to look something up on the web, how quickly your attention is pulled elsewhere? Before you know it, an hour goes by and you forgot what you had originally opened your web browser in the first place. Or the phone rings, or an email arrives… our ability to block out distractions is key. Today, more than ever, one of the greatest challenges we face is attention.
This is where the 10 day Sprint concept helps.
The concept originated in software development. Sprints are a critical aspect of a the Agile methodology, specifically part what is called a Scrum. Software developers have to learn to work within an ever evolving set of requirements driven by highly demanding users. Not much different than real life, is it not? So what if you treated each one of your goasl like a software development project?
A key principle of a Scrum is to:
"Accept that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined. Instead, focus on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly, to respond to emerging requirements, and to adapt to evolving technologies and changes in market conditions." Development teams are often assembling the car after it’s already left the factory. More often than not, the users themselves define the best use of the tools developed.
How's that to set the tone of your 10-day sprint? What if instead of focusing on the problem (which you may or may not truly understand), you focused on maximizing your output? Take the first step, put the car on the road, and adjust as needed while you put your ideas to the test.
What drives a sense of urgency? A deadline. This is one of the reasons why the 10-day sprint is so valuable... it creates a deadline. Ready to start brainstorming ideas? Spend the next 10 minutes coming up with a list of possible 10 day goals. Here are some ideas: