Wordy Paper #4

Statistics: the theory of a lot of a lot and a little of a little. I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately.

To start this train of thought, I've always considered myself to be pretty average. Height wise, style wise, intelligence wise. I don't really see myself outlying in any statistical analysis. Me: average-ish.

A persistent thought has come alive in my brain though about this whole being average and becoming an outlyer. It really has to do with daily effort.

Let's say you have a job, and every day you go in an do your job. Great, after two, five, ten years, I imagine you will have gotten pretty good at that job. Right? Well, maybe.

Let's say you learn how to play the guitar and you learn some of your favorite songs and you are able to play those songs again and again for five, ten, 15 years. After 15 years, you're bound to be really good at the guitar, right? Well, I imagine you'll be pretty good at playing those songs.

If you look at the effort applied to learn that job, learn those songs, and the inertia required to finally build the momentum to feel comfortable with those at first very difficult challenges, you'll realize that it took a lot of energy out of you. Once we begin feeling comfortable with those things that at first seemed very difficult, there is this sense of accomplishment, and the drive to keep going begins to fade a little bit. At first, we were motivated to reach our big goals and get great at what we are trying to accomplish, and if enough effort is put forth, we may eventually crash into our goal. We did it! Phew.

This, I feel is the great parabola we see in statistical analysis. Almost everyone seeks to be better at something, sets their sights on a goal and puts forward some work to reach it. There are outliers who don't even have a goal. Some set a goal but do nothing. Most of us will set a goal and put forward work to try and accomplish that goal, and many of us will actually hit our goals! Oh yes, it's true. I know it's true because I am average, and I've reached many goals in my life. That means that almost everyone has accomplished that same thing.

So who is the outlier here? These are the people who keep up their intensity. They may have small goals, but those small goals are to push them toward bigger goals. They stay on fire.

Using the guitar example, they may have a goal to learn their favorite song, but their bigger goal is to be able to perform a show in front of an audience. So they learn some songs, they learn theory, they practice new things, and continue to challenge themselves until they completely transform their habits around the guitar. While the one person can play their favorite songs frontwards and backwards, the more intense person can play ANYONE'S favorite songs frontwards and backwards. These are the people you think were born with a natural gift for music because they create magic when they pick up the guitar. No, they weren't born with natural talent. They were just hungry to be great, and had focused intensity over a long period of time.

I'll admit, that is pretty much totally ripped off from Dave Ramsey: Focused Intensity over Time multiplied by God. I believe this. I've given myself challenges where I had to focus on something longer than a day, a week, a month. By the end of the month of two, I've changed myself. I've changed my abilities. Napoleon Dynamite would finally get some skills.

I feel like I'm on the cusp of another big opportunity where it comes to my current job. As a part-time, lowly staff member, I'm not particularly seen as a key team member, but I feel like I can change that. All it will take from me is focused intensity over time. I honestly feel that with an applied daily effort to improve our business, we will see drastic changes within the year. That is a pretty short timeline.

The areas I will need help with are 1) Finding accountability, 2) Guidance from leadership, and 3) Stepping out of my comfort bubble to make changes that need to be made. Currently, my job has the key players who make all the decisions, and I'm just the lowly drone who does the bidding. My goal is simply to make myself know in the organization. To force myself into the key conversations about the company's future, and to act when given the opportunity to.

So there you go, the challenge for today is to focus my intensity on becoming a key player and taking on more responsibility. Starting today. Today is the day I move up the stat curve, closer and closer to an outlier.