I was listening to a podcast* recently where the guest told a story about a pottery teacher. At the beginning of the semester, he divided the class into two groups. His instructions to the first group were to make the absolute best pot they could make. They only had to hand in one pot, but it had to be perfect. His instructions to the second group were to make as many pots as possible. Their pots didn’t have to be perfect, but they needed to make a lot of them. At the end of the semester, he evaluated everyone’s work. Guess which group made the best pots? You guessed it. Group 2. The group focused on quantity over quality; experimentation over perfection.
That story struck a chord, because it perfectly illustrates something that I talk about fairly regularly here at Intentional Retirement: Iteration is the key to creating your ideal life and retirement.
Experiment. Adjust. Improve. Experiment. Adjust. Improve.
Keep that in mind as you start the New Year. A little real world experimentation is usually better than grandiose dreams on the drawing board.
Be Intentional,
Joe
P.S. Just in case you want a few more articles to drive the point home:
- Do I really want this or do I just think I want it?
- You don’t find yourself, you create yourself.
- How to retire today, regardless of your age.
- The importance of more at bats.
- The problem with delayed gratification.
* The podcast mentioned above is Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy
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