Lowering the Barrier to Entry
Date Posted: January 6th, 2009
A goal with a seemingly high barrier to entry is virtually impossible to blast straight through. Inevitably you fall flat your face, and unfortunately there’s a tendency to attribute the failure to the goal itself rather than to the size of the step. Many self-help books talk at length about visualizing yourself completing your goals, conditioning yourself for success, but not much about reflecting on what tasks you’re actually able to accomplish right now. Common sense says that you don’t start a new musician with Beethoven’s piano sonatas, so why are we encouraged to do this in other areas? It just doesn’t make sense, and not surprisingly when I’ve taken a “through the barrier” approach it hasn’t worked.
Example: Strength Training
Strength training has been one of the hardest areas for me to get started. A year ago I could barely do a single push-up, let alone a pull-up or whatever else was suggested as the first step of a “beginner” program. I didn’t want to injure myself, and the idea of going through tough, painful introduction process didn’t appeal to me. Up to a certain point exercise induced achiness makes me feel good about myself, but after that I wonder why I’m torturing myself. I’m in this for general health and for the joy of incremental improvement, so if the journey isn’t pleasurable I probably won’t do it. Not suprisingly, going from very little strength to a “beginner” strength training regimen wasn’t going to work for me. The step was too large.
In the past few months, though, I’ve actually started making progress in this area. I got Wii Fit for my birthday, and I’ve found it to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s challenging but not too challenging, I feel good doing it, and slowly but surely my strength is increasing. I can do a small set of regular pushups now, which is a big deal for the girl who couldn’t even do one without feeling the burn. 
I’m pretty sure that in a few more weeks I’ll be able to successfully start a “beginner” strength training program.
Example: Music
For a long time I’ve wanted to be able to improvise well on the piano. (I say well because technically banging your fits on the keyboard is improvising.) I’ve played piano since I was 10 years old, and in spite of all that study I haven’t been able to make a melody line with chords sound like music. There are many books
Now, though, I think I’ve found a way that makes the process a lot more fun and more useful: vamping for contra dancing. Aaron and I already do some contra dancing, and Aaron has been playing contra music on the mandolin for a while now. Without getting technical, the basic method of accompaniment is not all that hard for me to pick up, and it’s actually used by accomplished players (albeit with some embellishment). There’s a clear road to improvement, and once I get to a certain proficiency I can apply all that I’ve learned in contra vamping to jazz. In a nutshell, vamping is to music what Wii Fit is to exercise: a great starting place for me.
What areas in your life are you having a hard time getting started? Diet? A new skill? Work? School? Relationships? Maybe you need to find a way to lower the barrier to entry instead of futiley blasting your way through.
