How Can You Do Better This Year?

At the beginning of the year when you want to set yourself up for how you can do better by the end of 2017, maybe going and getting some feedback and making adjustments is the way to go.

Are you looking at what happened in 2016? Are you thinking about how you can do better?

Here’s what Seth Godin had to say:

The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback.

The opposite is not true. We rarely change short-term behavior with long-term feedback. 

That's why sanctions rarely work well in international politics, and why cigarette taxes are the best way to keep people from getting lung cancer.

Sure, intelligent adults should be smart enough to figure out the net present value of a lifetime of cigarette purchases, plus the long-term health costs. And some are. But not enough. 

And students should be smart enough to realize that extra effort and expense in college might pay off in income or happiness in a few decades. And some are. But not enough.

If you want to reward (or punish) short-term behavior, don't do it down the road. Advances turn more heads than royalty streams do.