How Do We Engineer Our Own Success?
How Do We Engineer Our Own Success?
By Jed Bassein
Is it just me or does it feel like we’re stuck in a time loop? Destined to repeat the same things over and over again, as Bill Murray did in the movie “Groundhog Day.” It’s now the end of July 2020, and I feel like we are right where we were back in March. Cases are rising faster than before; schools, bars, and places of worship are all closing again; and protests are sparking everywhere with the country under civil unrest. It can be hard to maintain focus and keep pushing progress forward during times like these.
It’s not easy. It never is. But, we can do it! In this blog, I wanted to take a minute and reflect on some lessons I learned that helped keep me sane and productive. Earlier in June, I took a virtual seminar with Dr. Hugh Kerns from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Kearns is one of the creators of the “ThinkWell” (ithinkwell.com.au) program, which uses the latest research in psychology to teach high achievers how to succeed and maximize their productivity. Dr. Kerns speaks regularly at UC Davis GradPathways seminars and I strongly recommend tuning in the next time he speaks.
In his book “52 Ways to Stay Well: During your PhD, post-doc or research career,” he proposes the best biotechnological question I’ve ever heard. How do we engineer success? In other words, how do we get ourselves to succeed? I know some of you reading this out there are probably thinking, well I’m not really succeeding here am I…but, that’s not true, actually, you are! You made it this far and you can make it further. But, maybe you are feeling stressed-out and overwhelmed by the weight of expectations on your shoulders.
Addressing big issues is challenging. But that does not mean it is impossible. You can do it! One trick is to break large tasks into smaller ones, even tiny, tiny ones. Large tasks are difficult to accomplish, but little ones are not, and if you complete a million little tasks, you manage to accomplish the larger one. Dr. Kearns refers to these as “microtasks.” These are the smallest, tiniest tasks that are needed to complete a process. For example, you will never finish writing a document if you never open it. Finding the document you want to work on and opening it are the microtasks required to start working on it. In his book, he notes that once people start something, they naturally tend to have an easier time continuing to work on that thing because they are already doing it. This occurs because, as we work, the thought of working becomes less tiresome and more habitual. Microtasks allow you to initiate the habit of working more easily because once it has begun, continuing to works requires less energy. By using that initial moment generated by our microtasks, we can fuel greater productivity in our daily routines.
With a good work habit, the next trick to succeeding is to understand that success is how you define it. Success can be anything. Success can be something as hard as completing your PhD or as easy as remembering to brush your teeth every night. Now, that may seem funny, but that is not the point, the point is that you brushed your teeth and you succeeded. Success is the point because success creates motivation, and motivation creates progress, and progress leads to the Dark Side (oh, sorry couldn’t resist digressing into a Star Wars reference). But, the truth of the matter is, that to succeed, you have to feel like you are succeeding. When you create large, unrealistic goals for yourself two things happen. First, they seem unattainable, and second, they make you feel like a failure when they do not come to fruition. There is nothing wrong with having high expectations and expecting great things from yourself, but you have to find the distinction between a long-term and a short-term goal.
The key to success is recognizing the difference between a long-term and a short-term goal. Time is the major factor for delineating between long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals can take anywhere from a few days to several years to complete, whereas short-term goals can usually be completed in a matter of hours. If you keep expecting to complete long-term goals in short-term timelines, you are engineering failure and not success. To engineer success, you have to set reasonable goals inside of reasonable timelines. If you set a lofty, unattainable short-term goal, you might be sad or disappointed when that mark is not met. But, by setting a reasonable goal, you create the possibility to exceed your expectations of and create more success than you originally intended. Then, you can be happy for over-achieving your intended goal. This two-goal approach will not only make you feel more accomplished, but it can also make you feel more productive. So, if you are finding yourself constantly failing to accomplish your goals, try changing the goal to ensure success and then focus on achieving more goals in a given timeframe.
Lastly, deal with failures and disappointments. Accepting failures and dealing with frustrations is a common theme in science, because as scientists, we face failure every day. But, just because something failed, does not mean that we did not succeed. Success does not also have to be defined by tangible items. Success can be measured in experience gained. If an experiment failed, do not be discouraged, ask why it failed, and make learning the faults the success. You have to remember that each step along the way is the success and sometimes we take steps in the wrong direction before we learn what the right ones are. It is easy to look back and say, “Oh, if only I had done that then.” And, although that may be true, you cannot change the past. So, rather than feel the negativity of the failure, focus on the success of learning from those failures.
In these dire times, we must work harder to see the light. I hope this blog brought some motivation to your life and reminded you that you can succeed, even if it feels like you’re failing. It is okay, because you learned something along the way and the next time you will do it better. Remember the importance of positive thinking, because in the end, you are the engineer of your own success.