How Persistence Leads To Success: Wellness and Productivity Lessons from Rube Goldberg

Did you make a New Years Resolution?
Did you set a first-quarter goal?
Are setbacks impeding your progress toward success?
So often when we make a goal we make it so big, it’s hard to accomplish all in one try.    Doing a Rube Goldberg project with my daughter recently reminded me of three strategies for success in making a change or completing a project.  A Rube Goldberg project is making a series of complicated steps to
do something simple.  In our case, it was putting a tea bag into a cup.   Throughout the project, we needed to be persistent and look at failures as setbacks rather than reasons to quit. Here are our lessons:  (Video of our project starts at 3:00)

Success Lesson #1: Keep The End In Mind
We worked backward through the project.  First, we got the teabag to drop in the cup and then figured out how to trigger that step.  We had our end in sight. What is the end focus for the goal or the resolution that you set?
Success Lesson #2: Celebrate Incremental Progress

If we only celebrated when the whole project was complete,  it would feel like a chore so at every step. When we got something to work, we celebrate with a little cheer. Of course, when we got the whole thing to work, there was a big celebration. What small victories can you celebrate?
Success Lesson #3: Tweak After Setback, Don’t Give Up

A setback is just an indication that something needs to be adjusted.  When we have a big goal in mind sometimes along the way, we find things t...

Source: Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative - March 21, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Eliz Greene Tags: Award Winning Blog Source Type: blogs