Why you never start — The inevitability of trial and error
By: Kunal Kher
Tags: Weight Loss, Personal Development, Productivity, Goals, Procrastination

When game shows were beginning to gain popularity on television, one of my favourite shows was Kaun Banega Crorepati (The Indian adaption of Who wants to be a millionaire).

It was a really simple game with really simple rules. The host presented you with a question which had 4 options of which only one of them was the right answer. If you guessed right, you won the prize amount for the question and then moved up the ladder on the prize money and on to the next question. If you guessed wrong, you were knocked out of the game.

Real life, however, rarely imitates a television show. Every person that has a goal worthy of pursuing wants to know how to to achieve it. Not everyone has the same goals, some want to make more money, some want to learn a new language, some want to lose weight, etc.

While there are general guidelines on how to achieve your goals, the road map and the steps it takes to get there, vary for every individual.

Just take weight loss for one. While it’s simple to say eat less and exercise more, it’s just not that sample. Diet, rest period, work out frequency all play a role. Someone pressed for time may not have the luxury to spend an hour or two in the gym. So this individual may chose to experiment with HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). However, if he always finds himself winded out in the middle of the workout, he might decide to take the step of tackling this problem from the diet angle. A prolonged fast brings in the results real fast (some times up to 0.5 kg of weight loss a day). The individual then smiles from ear to ear until he goes into his next workout where he realises he is far weaker than he was a few days ago. You see, rapid weight loss through calorie restriction does strip away weight, but not all of it is fat. A lot of it can be muscle too. So then, the person who experimented with calorie restriction has to start from scratch watching his diet with greater care. I speak of course, from personal experience. ;)

Someone learning a new language might be told that it’s a good idea to practice a lot of grammar. So like a diligent student this person practices grammar by filling up text books and at the time of a test, manages to pass with flying colours, only to find out later during a conversation with a native speaker that he is unable to string a single coherent sentence together. Doing well on tests does not translate to better speaking abilities. So it’s back to the drawing board and figuring out how to spend more time on conversation rather than completing grammar exercises.

Truth be told, everyone wants the road to their goals to be a straight line from start to finish, but that’s not how it pans out in reality.

There are lot of tangents and roadblocks on the way. I believe that even though all of us are conscious of this fact, we still believe that spending time on research and preparation is the same as taking action. It’s not. Real life does not imitate a school exam where there are ready made answers to the question paper.

You’ll be experimenting with a lot of dead ends and wrong answers before you figure out what works for you. And while it’s true that there’s no progress made when you’re failing, you’re covering the bases on what does not work. This beats pondering and contemplating any time of the year.

Start.