Maximizing Positive Outcomes

After writing my post yesterday on Making Recreation Count, I reflected on the importance of maximizing positive outcomes wherever possible. As it related to recreation, I talked about the importance of ensuring that recreation was high quality. That's one example of maximizing a positive outcome.

I'm leaving my previous post as is, but I feel that the importance of maximizing positive outcomes merits more discussion, because for people keen on improving their lives, it's an absolutely pivotal concept.

Consider the following phrase:

Maximize positive outcomes at all times.

It's a truism for people who want more of the best things in life. It's a phrase to live by. It's a principle that should never leave your mind.

In the financial world, terms like return on investment, dividends and profit are used to identify the positive outcomes of financial investment. These are important terms, and perhaps we'll discuss them some time, but right now I'd like to point out that because our society is so focused on commerce and financial gain, I feel that the discussion about other positive outcomes can get lost in the mix.

Don't get me wrong, I want to be financially wealthy. I want you to be financially wealthy. But I want prosperity and well-being in other areas of my life as well, and that's why I believe that maximizing positive outcomes at all times is so important.

So, how do we maximize positive outcomes?

Know What You Value

Before you can maximize positive outcomes in you life, you have to have a solid understanding of what you value in the first place. Value is such an important thing to consider throughout all areas of life. How do you decide what you value? A few pointers:

First, if you haven't already figured it out, let me draw your attention to the following:

'Value' is a word that is horrendously misused.

If you understand the word value the way that big-box stores use it, throw that definition in the bin right now. Value has nothing to do with money. If you go to the supermarket, you're sure to see brightly-colored signs in all directions exclaiming that something (24 pack of soda, family-sized box of cereal, etc.) is "great value". This isn't a true statement, because a sale price does not affect the underlying value of the goods being purchased, it only affects the price you buy it for. What the store is actually doing is adjusting the value for money fraction in such a way to make the product seem more attractive to the consumer.

"Value" actually refers to "the importance or preciousness of something". This is what you need to focus on. Think about your life, and think about what is most important and precious to you. These are the things that you value.

This brings me to my second point: Value is completely subjective. You have to take ownership of your life and decide what is important to you. No one, not me, your friends, your coworkers, your parents or anybody else can do this for you. You, and only you, have to decide what you value.

As an example, consider personal fitness. Personally, I value physical endurance. It's important to me because I thoroughly enjoy cycling and riding long distances requires endurance. It is precious to me because without it I may not be able to ride to some of the locations I enjoy riding to.

Does this mean that physical endurance should also be important to you? Absolutely not.

You see. Subjective.

Analyze what you value. Write it down if need be. Once you do that, you're ready to move on.

Think About Potential Outcomes

As you likely do as well, I spend a great deal of time analyzing the potential outcomes of the way I spend my time. When it comes to maximizing positive outcomes, I believe that it is important to consider thoroughly what we stand to gain (or lose) from a particular action. No amount of effort upfront will make an activity worthwhile if the outcomes are inherently invaluable, therefore, we must think about potential outcomes before we take action.

Consider each potential outcome carefully. Each outcome will carry with it a certain amount of value that will be contributed to your life if you achieve the outcome. Using the value judgements you arrived at earlier, you'll be able to decide which potential outcomes are the most attractive.

Maximize Positive Outcomes and Execute Your Plan

Once you've considered each potential outcome, you'll be well prepared to choose a course of action. The course of action that you pursue does not need to be driven by only one potential outcome. Your decision to take a particular course may be derived from the collective value you feel you will receive from pursuing several potential outcomes simultaneously.

This is really where the word maximize comes into this discussion. Remember, you're focused on maximizing positive outcomes. There is a great deal of opportunity for creativity to take place here because there is an infinite number of ways you can mix-n-mash your life to extract the most value.

Consider a typical Saturday. You get up in the morning and decide that you would like to have a bike ride, spend some time with your friends and take a nap.

Let's arbitrarily decide that the above desires have the following value scores.

• Nap - 5 value points / hour
• Bike Ride - 3 value points / hour
• Socialize with Friends - 6 value points / hour

Let's also dictate that you have a solid commitment later in the day and only have 2 hours to do the above.

What should you do?

If you choose hastily, you might decide to just pick the most valuable item (socializing) and do it for all the time that you have. Over your allotted 2 hours, this will net you a value outcome of 12.

However, if you focus on maximizing positive outcomes, you'll quickly realize that your desires are not mutually exclusive. You won't be able to nap and take a bike ride at the same time, and napping with friends doesn't won't allow you to socialize, but you can certainly invite your friends to come along for a bike ride. By focusing on maximizing positive outcomes, you've been able to discover a course of action that will provide you with the most benefit.

Let's say you spend 2 hours socializing with your friends, one hour of which you spent cycling with them. Now, over the allotted 2 hours, you have achieved a value outcome of 15. Yay!

I know I've given a silly example, but I hope it has helped to illustrate what I'm talking about. The cruel fact of the matter is that all of us are bound by time and resources. The repressiveness of these boundaries can (and should) be reduced over time as we improve our lives, but in the meantime it is crucial that we make the most of what we have. It's really important.

If you're not already maximizing positive outcomes in your life, give it a try. I've found it to have great utility in my day to day activities, and it helps me get the most value from my time and resources. It's the reason I listen to music while I cook. It's the reason that I go to the gym on my lunch break. It's the reason I'll never drive 30 minutes to the store just to use a coupon that saves me 50 cents.

Most importantly, it's what can help you do more of the things that you value most.

Making Recreation Count

Recreation.

One of the 'R words' (along with rest and relaxation) that performance-minded and goal-orientated people struggle with. I have trouble taking time to recreate, and I know I'm not alone. Let me explain:

I define recreation as being any activity that is done where the goal in my mind is to achieve some level of personal enjoyment. This doesn't mean that recreating is without fringe benefits (e.g. becoming physically fit might be a fringe benefit of playing a sport that you enjoy), it just means that the core purpose of participating in the activity is to have some good ol' fashion fun.

So why does recreating cause problems for some of us? Everyone likes to have fun, don't they?

For me, and perhaps you as well, taking time for recreation creates a major dilemma. In general, my mind is wholly focused on activities and goals that I feel will bring me closer to where I would like to be in my life (wealthier, healthier, etc). This makes it incredibly difficult for me to enjoy recreation because in the back of my mind I feel that by recreating I am taking myself away from working on my goals. This is a huge problem because my thoughts interfere directly with my ability to enjoy the recreation in which I am participating, thereby partially nullifying the personal enjoyment I am receiving.

When it comes to recreation, I'm quite literally shooting myself in the foot.

After years of struggling with the above problem and speaking to others about it, I've come to find that there are two steps that should always be completed before participating in recreation:

First: Take Ownership of your Recreation

I spoke earlier about taking ownership of your life and how to do it. I think that similar principles can be applied to recreation. Before we participate in recreation, we must permit ourselves the privilege of said participation.

This is no small matter, nor is it something that can easily be accomplished. We all have a wide range of demands on our time and goals pending completion. When the time comes to recreate we have to be able to momentarily put these to the side and enjoy ourselves. I do this by considering all I must do and reassuring myself that I will continue my work when I am done recreating.

I give myself the permission to stop thinking about my goals and go have some fun.

Before you participate in some recreation, give this a try, because it can make a world of difference. You'll know when you get it right because your enjoyment while recreating won't be sapped away by thoughts of other priorities you have.

Second: Focus on Quality

Once you've released your mind from your other obligations during a time of recreation, the next thing you can focus on is making sure that the recreation is very high quality. Quality is important in all places, and a period of recreation is no exception. If you are going to take the time to have some fun, you may as well make sure that you have LOTS of fun.

Personally, one activity I enjoy participating in is cycling. If I consider all areas of my life, cycling serves three primary functions: I cycle to commute to work, I cycle for exercise and I cycle for the pure enjoyment of it. These functions are not mutually exclusive. For example, when I cycle to work, I do get a certain amount of exercise and some enjoyment from the ride, all whilst fulfilling my primary goal of getting myself to work.

This is why it is so important to consider quality as it relates to recreation. If I want to spend some recreational time on my bike, should I ride to my office? No. Should I do some Tabata intervals on a hill? Hell no! Those are approaches that add to the quality of other reasons I get on my bike, namely commuting to work and getting in shape. If I want to maximize my enjoyment while I'm out on a bike ride, I plan on taking a leisurely ride through a local river park so I can enjoy a great path and stop to skip the occasional rock at the river's edge. Not only have I allowed myself some recreation, but I've taken steps to make sure that the amount of enjoyment I receive is maximized.

Before you go out to have a some fun, take a moment to consider what steps you can take to make your recreation high quality. If you decide to play soccer, perhaps you'd have more fun if you played with friends. If you decide to play video games, perhaps you could unplug the phone during game-play so you won't be interrupted in the middle of an exciting gun battle.

Whatever form of recreation you choose, make it count.

5 Steps to Take Ownership of Your Life

After completing yesterday's post, I thought further about what steps you and I can complete to take ownership of our lives. I already wrote about why taking ownership is important and how important it is to grant ourselves the opportunity to ask ourselves how we feel about our lives. For clarity sake, I thought it beneficial to break things down even further. I always find information most helpful when it has been broken down to its bare essentials, and that's what I've tried to do here for our collective benefit.

So, without further ado, here are 5 Steps to Take Ownership of Your Life.

Step 1 - Permit Your Own Feelings

This step should be a no-brainer, but I've included it because it's exactly where I got hung up. As I pointed out yesterday, I literally spent years not even permitting myself to realize the feelings I was having about my career. Day by day, I was hiding behind the assumption that "because I have a decent job in my field, I must be happy. Case closed.". I was completely wrong to think this way, and I may have lost valuable self-improvement time because of it.

So, Step 1 is to give yourself permission to examine your own feelings. If you've created a "no-fly-zone" for your feelings about a particular aspect of your life (career, health, relationships, etc), dismantle it NOW. If you're going to be in charge of your life, you have to permit yourself to understand your own feelings. Throw away any assumptions you have. Start fresh. If you have existing feelings about the topic in question, sideline those as well. What you need to be able to do is examine how you feel today.

Step 2 - Ask Yourself the Big Question

With your feelings on tap, ask yourself (aloud, if necessary):

"Am I happy with [...]?"

You can fill in the blank with whatever attribute of your life you are examining. "Am I happy with my job?", "Am I happy with my health?", and so on. Take note of how you feel. Write your feelings down if it helps you. You may discover some new things about yourself. I did.

Be as truthful with yourself as you can. Within yourself, there should be no judgement, so even if your answer to the big question isn't what you want it to be or think it should be, accept it all the same. The more accurately you identify your true feelings, the more appropriately you'll be able to target improvement later on.

Step 3 - Consider Your Options

Once you know your feelings, you're ready to start considering options for change, as required. Even if you are happy with the particular attribute of your life being considered, you can always look for ways to make things even better. More importantly, if you're not happy with how things are going, you can point yourself in a new direction and begin to make improvements.

Spend some time pondering what options you have available to you. If you don't like your career, perhaps you could start transitioning to a new one. If you're unhappy with your health, perhaps you could identify some areas for improvement. The more effort you put into this step, the broader your list of options will become. Even if you feel trapped, there will undoubtedly be a small way forward.

Capture the options you come up with in a way you deem appropriate. Write them down. Memorize them. Email them to yourself. You want to make sure that you don't lose track of what options you have. These are the off-ramps from your current situation and the on-ramps to greater happiness.

Step 4 - Act

Without a doubt, this is the most important step. As I've read about numerous topics, this step always comes up as crucial in one form or another. Any amount of planning or thought is meaningless unless you follow through with action. You don't have to do something enormous right off the bat, but make sure you do something, even if that something is seemingly small.

The reason for taking immediate action, in my opinion, is two-fold. First, it starts you actually moving in a direction you want to go. Even if change doesn't come immediately, you can rest assured that you are getting closer to where you want to be. This is enormously significant and will help motivate you for further action. Second, I've always found that taking action is a great way to discover new options that are available to you. In Step 3 you considered what options you have available to you. Once you start moving, you will discover even more of these.

Don't be disheartened if progress seems slow at first. If, for example, you're keen to get in better shape, even deciding to take the stairs between office floors instead of the elevator will move you in the right direction. Remember, you have to walk before you can run. So, take that first step, and don't delay.

Step 5 - Repeat

If you're going to keep your motivation and direction, you need to keep repeating the above steps over, and over, again. It may not be something you do daily, but you must do it often enough that your goals and desires do not become stale and foreign to you. With each passing day, you know yourself better and better, so you must keep reevaluating to discover new feelings, new options as you consistently take action for a better tomorrow.

Taking Ownership of Your Life and Why it Matters

As I alluded to in my first post, I'm not quite satisfied with where I'm at in life. This feeling doesn't stem from terrible misfortune, nor is it rooted in a lack of basic necessities. I have, by any standard measure, been able to live quite comfortably for some time.

At present, I'm working as a software developer for a local organization. As far as software development jobs go, I have a pretty good one. The compensation is decent, I love the people I work with (awesome boss), and the hours are great. My job is not an uncomfortable place to be, and for that reason (and the need for a steady paycheck) I've kept showing up there for the last 6+ years.

Last year, while going about my day to day tasks as I always had, it occurred to me that I don't actually enjoy my job that much. Though this discovery was not triggered by any particular event, the realization of this fact completely floored me. It was painful. Every weekday, I was getting up in the morning, making an arduous commute and spending the day doing a job that I didn't get any personal satisfaction from. All this for a regular paycheck and the peace of mind that I could enjoy a comfortable, safe life.

After feeling frustrated (downtrodden, depressed, etc.) for a few weeks about what I had discovered, I made an even more painful discovery: I discovered that I had never even asked myself how I felt about my job. I had not asked:

"Am I happy with how I spend my time?"

Foolish.

Not only was I guilty of staying employed in career that was unstimulating to me. I was guilty of not even querying my own feelings about a job that was taking up a very large portion of my time and energy. I had foolishly deprived myself the opportunity to have feelings about my job. I was not taking ownership of my life.

But what is ownership? What does that mean? To me it means taking control of my life and thinking rationally about why I do what I do. It means being accountable to myself for how I'm spending my time.

Through this experience, I learned that when it comes to evaluating one's life, nothing is more important. Think about your life right now. Do you give yourself the liberty to discover your feelings about how you spend your time? Or, as I did, have you slipped into the numbing comfort of a safe path through life? Ask yourself now:

"Am I happy with how I spend my time?"

Taking ownership of your life starts with asking this question. It's a simple exercise in thought, but the answer has the power to rejuvenate your goals and give you direction anew. If you discover that things are not going the way you desire you can take action to make changes. That's putting yourself back in the driver's seat of your life. That's ownership.

Taking ownership of our lives doesn't mean that we'll make drastic adjustments, as these are not always an option, but it does give meaning to the possibility of change. It allows us to make small course corrections that will bring us closer to our goals.

In my case, I didn't go to work the next day with my resignation letter in hand, as doing so would have been horrendously reckless. In fact, over a year later, I'm still there. Would I like to have moved on? Absolutely. But in the meantime I get to enjoy the pleasant feeling of knowing why I show up each day. I know I won't be there forever, and for the moment my job is fulfilling a useful role in reaching for my goals. In a way, it is literally facilitating my eventual departure. When the time is right, I'll be able to move on.

First Post

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking of starting a blog for a while now, so I'm very pleased that it has finally happened and I'm even more pleased that you've stopped in to give it a read. My decision to start a blog was not one that I made overnight. Instead, it was a decision that arose from countless feelings and thoughts that I've had over the last few years. This has been a long time coming.

So why do I want to write a blog? What am I expecting to get out of this experience?

I think, more than anything else, this blog will be a great way for me to sort through many of the thoughts that I've had over the last few years. As a guy in his early thirties, I don't think I'm alone in feeling that my mid to late twenties were some of the most thoughtful and difficult years of my life, and my thirties (so far) are shaping up to be much the same. I say this not to complain, but to give some context to the things that I would like to talk about.

For me, and perhaps for you as well, transitioning into full-on adulthood after university has been completely different than I imagined. Call me naive, but for whatever reason my unfailing optimism had me convinced that life would really smooth out once I finished my university degree (Computer Science) and found my way into a stable job.

Get an education. Get a job. Live happily ever after. That's how the story goes, isn't it? Did I fail to complete one of those steps? I got the education, I have a decent job, yet where I'm at right now doesn't feel quite like what I ordered. I'm not completely unhappy, but I will admit to feeling very disheartened many days that see me get up, go to work, take care of my other responsibilities all the while feeling like none of it is taking me where I want to go.

Like you, I desire health, wealth and general satisfaction from my life. I don't think that's too much to ask. In fact, I know that's not too much to ask. However, It's not an easy thing to achieve and although I see some people who seem completely contented with a 9 to 5 job and a few TV shows in the evening, I'm not one of them, and I know I'm not alone.

I want to get more out of my life. I don't just want more health and more wealth, I want more of whatever makes me feel like I'm living true to my desires. I don't want to live my life feeling like I'm biding my time as a meaningless drone. I want to live knowing that I'm taking every opportunity to do what I want to do, see what I want to see and create what I desire. Achieving this is a long process and it's something that I focus on every day.

As I've progressed towards my goals, I've learned many things by reading the thoughts and ideas that other people have shared on the Internet and in books. Writing this blog will help me organize what I've learned and it will allow me to give to others some of what I've found useful. I'm not where I want to be just yet, but I've come a long way in the right direction and I'm excited to share what I've discovered.

So again, thank you for visiting. I really am glad that you're here. I hope that you subscribe to my feed. I hope that you comment and participate in the discussions that will take shape here. Most of all, I hope that you find my content useful and that it helps you get more out of your life.

Welcome aboard.