{"id":13194,"date":"2010-09-07T23:00:49","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T06:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=13194"},"modified":"2010-09-07T23:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T06:00:56","slug":"how-do-you-make-the-praxis-of-continuous-goal-pursuit-work-in-practice-its-not-a-matter-of-avoiding-the-negative-consequences-of-failure-but-of-celebrating-the-steady-accumulation-of-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13194\/how-do-you-make-the-praxis-of-continuous-goal-pursuit-work-in-practice-its-not-a-matter-of-avoiding-the-negative-consequences-of-failure-but-of-celebrating-the-steady-accumulation-of-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you make the praxis of continuous goal-pursuit work in practice? It’s not a matter of avoiding the negative consequences of failure, but of celebrating the steady accumulation of successes."},"content":{"rendered":"

I think Jeff Brown<\/a> and I are both thinking out loud, by this point, and I want to emphasize that I am not quarreling with him. It’s his hammering away on the topic of goal-achievement that induced me to think about the subject in a systematic way, and I am by his discourse and by his good example much enriched.<\/p>\n

So here’s where I am tonight: You have to make the commitment, yes. Without a sincere resolution to do something different, you don’t have a goal, you just have a wish, a whim, a will-‘o-the-wisp wheedle issued for any reason or for no reason to a benignly indifferent universe.<\/p>\n

But: Even so: Just having a specific plan is still<\/em> not enough. You have to follow through. You have to do what it is that you have planned to do. But when we talk about the process of following through, too often we do it in a language that is inherently dis<\/em>-motivating.<\/p>\n

Like this: No pain, no gain. There is a truth to that cliche, obviously, and that’s why it’s such an easy sentiment to express. But by emphasizing the pain entailed by, in this case, exercise, the expression throws a formidable barrier in the way of actually digging in and doing the work required by the goal.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking that for a serious resolution to change one’s behavior to be effective in the long run — to get fit or to lose weight or to learn to speak Spanish or to master a seven-figure state of mind in your career — you have to rethink the incentives. The reward — to yourself, in your own mind — for having made incremental progress toward your goal has to exceed both the cost of achieving that small success and<\/em> the putative benefit of doing the opposite, instead.<\/p>\n

Do you see? Eating is easy. It can be very satisfying, fun even. Not-eating is hard, and it’s hard to think of not-eating as being any fun. But if you cannot find a way to celebrate the victory of not eating the wrong foods, of not eating as much or Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think Jeff Brown and I are both thinking out loud, by this point, and I want to emphasize that I am not quarreling with him. It’s his hammering away on the topic of goal-achievement that induced me to think about the subject in a systematic way, and I am by his discourse and by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2352,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2352\/is-the-goal-is-to-have-a-big-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":0},"title":"Is the Goal is to Have a Big Team?","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"My goal is to have a big team\". I actually had a Realtor say exactly that to me. Why? Is there some special reason someone, who wasn't deranged, would have the goal of having a big overhead and loads of people to manage and be responsible for and to? Is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"teamwork","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/teamwork.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16213,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16213\/unchained-melody-cultivating-indifference-with-cage-the-elephant\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":1},"title":"Unchained melody: Cultivating indifference with Cage the Elephant.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Man Alive! is six months old this week. A video I made on Monday celebrates the book's demi-anniversary by eviscerating two mutually-contradictory theories of human free will. Meanwhile, I'm in the early stages of writing a new book on moral philosophy, this one concerned with moving your self rightward on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":914,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/914\/interview-broker-bryant-of-poinciana-fl\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":2},"title":"INTERVIEW: Broker Bryant of Poinciana, FL","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryant Tutas, the most well-known author on the Active Rain Real Estate Network, was kind enough to grant me an interview. I have known Bryant since I signed up for Active Rain some six months ago. He is a serial contributor there, posting, commenting, and offering both insight and encouragement.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13298,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13298\/failing-up-the-big-secret-to-the-secret-to-success-is-this-the-secret-is-completely-obvious-to-everyone\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":3},"title":"Failing up: The big secret to “the secret to success” is this: The “secret” is completely obvious to everyone.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I got a speeding ticket today. Oops. The other week, I had what could have been a nice real estate transaction fall apart because I skipped a fundamental step, thinking it unnecessary, only to trip on it later. Worst of all, a new software project I've been working on is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1580,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1580\/and-one-other-thing-information-vs-knowledge-or-internet-vs-agent\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":4},"title":"And one other “thing” – Information vs. Knowledge (or Internet vs. Agent)","author":"Kris Berg","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This past week our company had its annual sales rally, for lack of a better term. It consisted of the requisite motivational speaker who was charged with inspiring us to achieve greatness, greatness which apparently can only be realized after purchasing $600 worth of inspirational tapes, a State of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13113,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13113\/a-kinder-gentler-jeff-brown-challenge-catch-yourself-doing-something-worthwhile-for-every-day-in-september\/","url_meta":{"origin":13194,"position":5},"title":"A kinder, gentler Jeff Brown challenge: Catch yourself doing something worthwhile — for every day in September.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard not to love Jeff Brown's prospecting challenge. But it's kind of easy to note that most of us have not raised our hands to submit ourselves to its arduous benefits. It goes for me, too: If I have six hours to spare on any given day, I'm going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13196,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13194\/revisions\/13196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}