Don’t Let Your Huge Goal Distract You from Small Wins

It's interesting - a lot of "geeks" or "hackers" dislike sports, and many maintain that sports have little value (especially compared to intellectual pursuits). But... if you're a fan of (American) football, or baseball, you can immediately and intuitively grasp the ideas from this article in terms of an easy to understand metaphor. In fact, if you are such a fan (and/or participant) you probably already have this mindset, which could be summarized as:

"Just pickup a first down, you don't have to score a touchdown on every play"

or

"Focus on hitting singles and doubles and the runs will come"

To the extent that sports represent an analogy to "real life" the experience gained from doing these things can actually be very valuable.

Let me also refer back to one of my favorite sports stories of all time: The 2002 NCAA wrestling finals. Rob Rohn wrestling Josh Lambrecht for the 184lb championship. Rohn is down by 12+ points late in the match, and is close to losing on a technical fall, and certainly doesn't have enough time to come back and win. The announcers have already started congratulating Lambrecht on his win with just over a minute to go. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Rohn pulls out a "cement job" from a front headlock, puts Lambrecht on his back, and wins by pinfall with a few seconds remaining. As a metaphor for persistence and "never say die" spirit, it's hard to find a better example, IMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRB6m4VdeJQ