RISCARIO INSIDER

December 22, 2012

WHERE THERE’S WILLPOWER, THERE’S A WAY

Success comes from self-control. If you're not getting done what you want to get done, your willpower may be the problem.

Obstacles like freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies have no sympathy.

One of the best uses of self-control is to build habits. Once you establish a habit, you reduce the decisions you need to make. [Getting married does too, but getting told what to do brings stress.]

Routinize The Routine

"You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make." — Barack Obama

Think about that. President Obama preserves his willpower by letting others make smaller decisions for him. That lets him focus on more important decisions. (see boring is productive, Harvard Business Review).

Steve Jobs kept inventing and updating products but not his clothing (Gizmodo). He bought 100 black turtlenecks (Gawker), which even removed the step of reordering.

The evolution of Steve Jobs' clothing (click to read on Gizmodo)

I had more trouble dressing on Casual Fridays. The other days, I'd wear a suit with a white shirt.

"I got sick and tired of having to decide what kind of dessert I was going to have at the restaurant, so I decided it would always be chocolate ice cream, and never worried about it again." — Richard Feynman

Barack became President and Richard won a Nobel Prize. Your mileage may vary.

Little habits help too. I always put my keys in the same place, which eliminates the last moment panic of finding them. Caution: You don't want to become eccentric.

The Radish Experiment

Willpower is also essential for change. Dan Heath explains in this video.

Recent research shows that our willpower is limited and gets exhausted easily. You replenish willpower with glucose. Willpower is like a muscle that you can strengthen without sugary drinks. Building habits is one way.

Learn More

To get better results, get and give these books: (Amazon, non-affiliate links)

The Willpower Instinct: how self-control works, why it matters and what you can do to get more of it by Kelly McGonigal. Practical tips. You're getting a week by week course.
Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. This book is more theoretical.
Switch: how to change things when change is hard by Chip and Dan Heath. Filled with examples of how to change others too.

This is the final post of 2012 — just in time for your New Years Resolutions.

Best wishes to you and yours during the holidays.
May 2013 be the best year you've seen!

Podcast 200

direct download | Internet Archive page | iTunes

PS Mind those calories!

December 15, 2012

WHY WE GET BAD ADVICE

We often get misled even if we pay for the advice. Whose fault is that?

Hindsight

Sometimes we can't tell if advice is bad until much later. If your advisor tells you to buy or sell an investment, you'll eventually know if that advice is sound … when you can’t do anything about it.

If the advice is more general, say to accept/reject a job offer. You’ll never know what was better because you can only take one path. Computers are powerful but can't accurately simulate the path not taken. This type of you-never-know-if-it's-right advice is easy to get (and give). If something goes wrong, you might get blamed for not following the advice properly.

There's also "obvious" advice. We often know what we're doing wrong. Perhaps we need to eat better, upgrade skills or exercise more. Knowing isn't doing. One more reminder may be just what we need to act.

Skills

“Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.” — George Burns

It's easy to give black/white advice without understanding the nuances. If only the player or mayor did fill in the blank. It's easy to give advice to people who'll never hear or heed it.

You might be getting advice outside of the giver’s expertise or experience. The advice might still be right by coincidence.

The Intent

You may have difficulty figuring out the motivation behind the advice. Maybe you're getting a disguised sales pitch that brings your advisor a big gain while causing you (and others like you) a minor pain.

You may sense that you're getting bad advice but refuse to admit you chose the wrong advisor. We're great at fooling ourselves.

Conflicting Advice

Ask around and you're bound to get conflicting advice --- even from the same person at different times. Every decision has pros and cons. You benefit from differences in opinion even though consensus feels nicer. Blockbuster and Kodak had plans but became extinct. Not taking action can lead to the same outcome as taking the wrong action.

Ignoring advice simplifies your decisions but doesn't make them better.

Shooting The Messenger

Know to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
— Plutarch

Even if you get bad advice you develop your cognitive skills by wading through the murky options. You might find good excellent advice in the process.

You also get insights into the giver. Stephen King said there's a little of us in everyone. That means there's a little of everyone in us. Understand others a bit better and you understand yourself better too.

Neo: Morpheus. The Oracle, she told me I'm...
Morpheus: She told you exactly what you needed to hear, that's all.
— The Matrix

The advice may be just enough to get you moving on the right path, even if you don’t realize this at the time.

When you show you're open to advice, you'll get more advice. Better advice. Better advisors. There's little point helping people who don't change. Show you have the courage and you'll get more help. Thus ends my advice.

Podcast 199

direct download | Internet Archive page | iTunes

PS Do you take advice as well as you give it?