failure

one day, i was philosophizing to myself about the nature of failure. later, when explaining it to a friend, i managed to put is succinctly enough to merit putting it down for posterity.

and so, here are my "levels of failure", in ascending order of degree:

1. failure to execute your plan
2. failure to plan to maximize the chances of achieving your selected goal
3. failure to select the most important goal
4. failure to prioritize your goals before planning

these thoughts came to me when i was thinking about why it was so difficult to manage 5 days of gym in a week.

it's been roughly 7 weeks of gym now (yes, i'm not counting the one month break at all), and i've not managed 5 even once. i only managed 4 for the first time last week. i usually just manage 3. and i was trying to figure why.

so, based on the above framework, this was my explanation:

1. there were days when it was quite possible to go to gym, but i just didn't go. usually because i wanted to go home and sleep instead. and in most cases, i didn't end up sleeping, thus pushing the vicious cycle to the next day.
2. i didn't think about and address the various reasons i may have to not go to gym. the only thing i concentrated on was on having the time. but, as it turns out, there are plenty of other things you need. and even if you have the time, you won't end up going if those things are missing. that's what happened in that one month.
3. i did not think about what was more important. should i be focusing on going to gym or getting fit? i could have done other things like walking, cycling, and a lot of other things i simply dismissed because i thought my goal was to go to gym.
4. this was a tough one. in all likelihood, getting fit would be my priority number one. but the fact remains, that i didn't consider the rest. and without knowing my priorities, there is a big chance you're chasing something irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things.