If you wanted to, you would – or would you?

“If he wanted to, he would”

I saw that comment on the Internet often enough that I looked it up and found out it’s the title of a country song. That’s interesting because for decades I have said something very similar to young people, both students and my own children.

People say they want to win a championships, earn a Ph.D. , found a non-profit, start a business – and, yet, they don’t take the steps to accomplish those goals. For the record, I’ve done all of those things, and if someone tells me they want to do A, B or C, I always say – “Well, do it then.”

It really is (almost), that simple. The key to any success is consistency.

A tale of two athletes (but it could just as easily be business)

Years ago, I knew two young athletes. Let’s call them Bob1 and Bob2, because neither one was named Bob. They had every advantage in the world. Their parents had enough money to support their training. They had access to the best coaches. They had training partners. Bob1 was a natural athlete – stronger, faster, could jump higher. He had a lot of success very young and everyone expected to see his name in lights one day. Except, he started drinking after practice and eventually was drinking instead of practice. We never heard from him again.

Bob2 was not as naturally talented and he put in 100% effort 80% of the time. He went a lot farther than Bob1, but eventually, he lost out to athletes who put out the same amount of effort every day. Let’s say your “getting-better” score is 9. You’re talented and every day you train you get 9 cubits better. (I realize cubit is a Biblical measure of length – just work with me here.) Every 10 days, you get 8 x 9 =72 cubits better. Bob3, who is not as talented, gets 8 cubits better every day he trains and since he trains every day, in 10 days, he gets 10 x 8 = 80 cubits better.

Aristotle said it first

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”

You might wonder how Belize would make anyone excellent at anything. Truthfully, I went because I wanted to go, and that’s the point. However, I did end up making a game, Meet the Maya, that featured the pyramids and jaguars I saw in Belize, so that’s something.

Can you really want something and then – just not?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially as I get older. My brother says that anyone who checks off all of the items on their bucket list doesn’t have a long enough list.

Here, in no particular order, are some items on my extremely long list

• Be really fluent in Spanish, not just able to get by
• Improve my JavasScript. I’m pretty good but I could be better
• Create a web app with AI – I’ve taken a couple of courses, but I’m still at the low intermediate level – and so are >90% of those people on LinkedIn who have AI in their profile.
• Go to Dominica
• Update and document all of the games we have on the market
• Finish four more games I have sketched out and in various stages of completion
• Become a better writer (which is why I’ve taken to writing every day, either here, for our LinkedIn newsletter, company blog or somewhere else)
• Give a workshop on game design and primary sources at Standing Rock
• Give a presentation for 200 students at the National Indian Education Association

Okay, those last two I already have scheduled in October so I will for sure be doing them. On the other hand, I have many more items that are not on that list but I wanted to finish this post while it was still August. Some of the items are far more “out there”. I’d like to write series of fantasy novels, learn R and Python, spend a few months in Spain, visit Italy. Some of those things have been on my list for a long time, and I have done very little in that direction.

So, does that mean I don’t really want to do those things or that I just have not cleared up space in my life to get to them? I don’t know the answer to that. After all, it took me a lot of years before I got to Belize.