Feedback, Not Failure

Oct 1

Written By Mackalyn Rykers

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

- Thomas Edison

Feedback, Not Failure Feedback is just information.

Imagine walking on a rocky surface — maybe a beach, a dry creek bed, or a hiking trail.

Some of the stones are stable and solid. If you step on them, they don’t move.

Some of the stones are slippery. Maybe there’s a little mud.

Some of the stones aren’t stable. They wiggle or tip when you step on them.

With every step you take, you are getting feedback about the path. And you can use that immediate feedback to correct the course as needed.

If you step on a rock, and it shifts, did you fail?

No.

You just got important information about the next thing to do, try another rock.

You got feedback.

It's data that you can use to make a decision.

When you walk on rocks, you get feedback. The physical sensation of whatever the rock is doing, sliding, tipping, or staying steady, tells you what you should do next.

Same as with all your other movements, whether in the gym or outside of it. If you feel yourself leaning too much to one side, losing your grip on weight, or losing your balance, you take action to correct that.

Same as with your eating habits. If you notice that red-light foods seem to make you overeat, or make you feel sick, then you make a decision about whether to keep those foods around.

Over time, you build a database from your feedback

If you walk that rocky trail often enough, you might start to learn which rocks to avoid or step on.

If you exercise often enough, you learn which movements are tricky or harder to do properly. And you figure out some ways to anticipate and/or change that.

It’s all just information.

Failure's not real.

If you stumbled on that rocky path, you got feedback about an untrustworthy rock. You didn’t fail walking.

If you fell down in the gym, you got feedback about leaning too far to the left. You didn’t fail the exercise.

If you ate suicide chilli curry and spent the evening trying unsuccessfully to digest a fireball, you got feedback about what foods work for you, or don’t. You didn’t fail to eat.

No matter what happens, you don’t fail.

In those moments, you just made a choice that didn’t work — but that gave you important information anyway.

Explore and analyze

Today, be curious about feedback.

All of this is a path to self-knowledge. Look at the choices you make and notice what happens when you make them.

What information did you get? What insight? What data?

What does that feedback tell you about what you could do next or change?

Try getting rid of the words “good” or “bad” and substitute “interesting” or “useful”, as in: “Well, that’s interesting” or “That’s useful to know”.

Change your perspective

To shift your perspective, you can ask yourself some key questions:

Do your expectations of progress match reality? How do you know?
Are you doing all the behaviours that truly matter the most consistently?
Could you be doing one or more of the basic practices a little bit better or more often?
Are you looking in discouraging or unsatisfying places for progress and happiness? Where else could you look?

Treat it like a game.

Ask yourself, “How’s this working for me?”

If the answer is “Fabulously,” then keep doing it.

If the answer is “Not so great,” then use that information to change course. No big deal.

Accept the feedback, learn from it, and go forward with a fresh perspective.

Define the baseline that keeps you in bounds.

You don't have to be an exercise or nutrition expert to stay lean and healthy.

You can get very far by simply eating the right foods in the right amounts. However, you do need to pay attention and be mindful, consistently reviewing and refreshing basic daily practices.

To do that, you need to define your baselines.

Your baseline keeps you in bounds of where you want to be and protects you from letting practices slip. Your baseline is a "safety harness" that protects you from rationalizing all kinds of poor choices.

Your baseline is the line you don't go below—the bare minimum you are willing to do.

Of course, you can go higher. The baseline is there to always prevent going lower. If you do go lower, you can immediately notice and re-evaluate.

Define your baseline

Your baseline reflects your boundaries of the level of "good health" that's within tolerance for you. At what point do unhealthy practices start to feel intolerable to you? At what point does feeling unhealthy get in the way of your other values and responsibilities? That's your baseline.

Your baseline is unique to you: what you know of your body, your life, your mindset, and your daily practices.

Your baseline reflects what you need, value, and want. What you're willing to trade off and do.

Each person is different. And each choice has trade-offs. For instance:

You might choose to set your baseline as one hour of activity daily.
The benefit is that it'll be easier to stay lean and fit—but you'll have to shuffle your schedule and make that a priority.
You might choose to set your baseline as two restaurant meals per week.
It'll be cheaper and better for your waistline—but you might have to revise your social calendar and find other non-restaurant activities if going out is important to you.

Ask yourself:

What do I value?
What is truly important to me?
What am I willing to trade? Why/why not?
How will my choices affect my health and body composition? Am I OK with that?
Does my expected input match my expected output? If not, do I need to revise one or the other?

Once you set your baseline, organize your schedule and your life around meeting your minimums.

Successful maintenance requires a clear understanding of a baseline.