I used to love playing cards as a kid.
My family would spend hours playing Old Maid, Uno, War, and Hearts. And like any good siblings, sometimes those games would turn into an actual war.
As I got older, the games would get more complex. Like Bridge, Canasta, and Gin Rummy. I’d like to say we grew out of the wars, but I’d be wrong. In fact, the grudges seemed to last longer as we grew up.
The love of cards wasn’t contained to my family. My extended family of Aunts and Uncles, loved it too.
And it didn’t matter whose house you were at, what room you were in, there was always a card deck within reach. The cards and competition always brought us together.
The card decks were never tucked away in a cupboard. They were never out of sight. They were always there, beckoning you to grab them.
That lesson has impacted my coaching, parenting, and personal philosophy. Three principles I think about every day to make change easier are:
- Minimize Distance, Maximize Results: Reducing the ‘distance’ between you and your goals creates efficiency. For your health, this might mean leaving an exercise mat on your living room floor. In family life, this might mean leaving board games on your kitchen table.
- Increase Target Size for Important Actions: Just like larger buttons are easier to click on a website, important goals or actions should be ‘larger’ or more prominent in your life. Dedicate more time on your calendar to the thing you want the most. Have more healthier snacks than unhealthy ones.
- Error Rate Reduction: Audit your environment for the actions you take that lead you in the opposite direction of your goals. It’s built into the human system to find the path of least resistance. Remove, hide, or make inconvenient the things that make progress difficult. Put remote controls in boxes. Place snacks on high shelves that need ladders. Install app blockers on your phone after set times.
All three of these involve your environment shaping your success not your willpower.
A few years ago my wife got me this game table for my birthday.
It’s got a hundred plus board games and card games on it, and we use it every day.
But the reason we use it every day is because it sits in our main living room, and it acts as the coffee table. I’m sure the interior designer, or ‘minimalist’ would cringe to think that this is displayed so prominently. However, I’m not trying to win Architectural Digest Awards.
I want to make it easy to spend time with my kids at play. Yahtzee, Battleship, and Checkers are the frequent choices.
Every person that’s come to our house has asked us where we got it, because:
- it’s convenient (ready to go at all times),
- it’s obvious (right in the middle of where we live), and
- it’s aligned (hits the goal of spending time together playing, learning, and laughing.)
Which are principles one, two, and three from earlier in this message.
By the way, if you’re wondering… it’s an ‘Infinity Game Table’ made by Arcade1Up.
So much of the success, fulfillment, or enjoyment we all seek is on the other side of shaping the right environment. While it’s honorable to have incredible grit, don’t make your world more ‘gritty’ then it needs to be.
Be Bold. Take Action. Leave a Mark.
Todd Herman
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