I’ve become really interested in the power of small, persistent efforts.  (Check out my last post.)   I think one of the major benefits of persistent, small efforts is the “multiplier effect.”   Deliberate practice leads to slight more mastery, which leads to more success, which can lead to more practice.  As Geoff Colvin explains in Talent is Overrated the “multiplier effect” is a term coined by researchers at Cornell who gives the example of someone who gains a slight advantage in baseball:

This satisfaction may lead such an individual to practice more, search more aggressively for others willing to play after school and on weekends, try out for teams (not just school teams but also summer league teams), get professional coaching, watch and discus televised games, and so forth.   Such an an individual is likely to become matched with increasingly enriched environments for baseball  skill . . . Factors cascade over time because they multiply the effects of earlier, seemingly weak, factors.

Of course, you have to be careful here, because it can sound like you have to be doing a bunch of activities to to be considered as progressing.   The point that I take from this quote is that small, consistent steps, lead naturally to other steps, which lead to opening up new territory.  “Factors cascade.”   Cascade like water.  Like the Taoists say water is weak yet strong, moving around rocks yet overtime creating Grand Canyons.  (I’m not a Taoist, but I play one on TV!)

I’m still far from fluency in Japanese but I am a heck of a lot farther than I thought I would be.   From kanji study to sentence flashcards, I’ve gotten to the point where I can listen to a podcast and decide whether I’m interested in the topic or not.  I can enjoy Japanese self-help books even if I don’t understand every sentence.   Factors are cascading and allow me to have more fun in Japanese.

Small amounts of practice also keeps the road map open.  Part of learning any domain (that’s the Talent is Overrated in me talking), involves mapping out your field or your practice.  I may have crazy, emergency room like days at school, but if I spend even just five minutes a day writing, I can remember where I am and where I am going.

A rolling samurai gathers no moss.  And let me tell, once the moss gathers it can feel like a doozy to pick off.  I think that’s what I’ve let happened to playing guitar.   I was practicing during my sabbatical and my summer vacation, but once school started again, I focused on school, writing, and Japanese.   Now it feels insurmountable to start again.  I should follow my own advice.

Little moments of daily practice help set the bookmark in your mind and help you persist.  I’m going to leave it at that because the metaphor store called and said I’ve overdrawn my account.   Gather no moss.  Let the waters cascade.   Keep the map open!  Take a few minutes each day.

The Power of the Small--Jizo Statute from Kamakura

There are a couple of things that terrify me: writing and technology.   Yes, I am writing right now.  Yes, I am using WordPress right now on a computer and publishing over the “internets.”  However, these things have only happened because of the power of the small. Continue reading »

I am hitting the bars once again.  No, it isn’t what you think.   I’m hitting the progress bars on learning websites. Continue reading »

"Float" through your financial life. It's a game and an art. Enjoy.

I am not a financial consultant.  I am not even a real samurai.  So any advice you get here is solely my personal experience and not necessarily a guide to general action.

The true warrior learns to fight so she does not have to fight.   The financial warrior learns about money so they become less wrapped up in how money controls their lives.

Credit cards are a convenience but if not mastered they will master you.  (Master You Card.)  After years of credit card debt, I have gone for years paying the balance in full.  I have come to see paying credit card interest as voluntary servitude, so I don’t do it.

Now that I have incorporated the habit of paying the balance in full every month, I’ve played with it a little bit by incorporating “the float.”   For me, the float is the time between when you make a charge and when the credit card bill is due.

Here is how it works:

1. When I make a credit card purchase, by the end of the day, I put the exact amount of money into my “Bills” savings account at ingdirect.com.   (There may be plenty of other great internet banking options but I’ve kind of grown financially with ING, especially by creating different savings accounts and creating nicknames for each account.)  If I don’t have the money, I don’t charge.    This way, when the bill comes, the money is in my “Bills”  account already.  It also earns interest.
2. When the bill comes, I check the due date and schedule a payment two days before the due date.  (I pay my credit card bills online, even though I’m starting to feel sorry for the post office.)
3. The money is already in my special savings account, so I schedule a transfer from my “Bills” account to the checking account the bill will be paid from two days before the scheduled pay date.   This prolongs the amount of time that your money will be earning interest.

Really, the most important step is #1.  Always have the money in an account to pay your credit card bills.   Let’s say the credit card company charges 20% interest.  If you always leave $1000 unpaid throughout the year, even though you make payments, you will be paying an extra $200 or more and get nothing in return.

Steps #2 and #3 are more like financial Farmville, except that they train your brain to think like a financially independent person.   By keeping my money in a “Bills” account I earned a whopping $6.17 in 2011.  I waste that much on coffee in a 48 hour period. (I will focus on this in a future article.)   But these steps, if you decide to take them on, are just one way to tell your samurai mind that, “My money works for me.”   (You may spend $10 on a book, but the lessons in that book may have the power to change your life.)

Learn more about money so that you do money and money doesn’t “do” you.   Have fun!