It's been a couple months since my last post on this. Principle 5 and 6 will be short, but #7 was by far my favorite so I'll go into some detail with that write up.

The short of the Zorro Circle (I never saw the movie) but the apprentice, Alejandro, is forced to fight in a small circle that his master has drawn for him- "The circle will be your world. Your whole life. Until I tell you otherwise, there is nothing outside of it."

Achor writes, "By first limiting the scope of our efforts, then watching those efforts have the intended effect, we accumulate the resources, knowledge, and confidence to expand the circle, gradually conquering a larger and larger area."

Recognize the problem. Have a flexible vision for the solution. Compartmentalize the problem (think small circle). And then fight in that circle. Once you've conquered that circle, make it a little bigger and take on the next step.

I always love the biological connections because they are fact based and easily proven or disproven:

"Neuroscientists have found that financial losses are actually processed in the same areas of the brain that respond to mortal danger...[withering profits = saber toothed tiger]"

As an economist I was forced to take microeconomics, which in my opinion, is absolutely worthless. It speaks of consumers as rational beings. People are irrational. Always have been and always will be. So nothing in that class applies to real life.

A rational investor would buy a stock when it's low and sell when it's high. How many times have you heard people knee-jerk and sell as the bottom already fell out of the stock?

Point being- fight in the circle. Don't let emotions take over. It's tough to do. We've all acted out of emotion, and sometimes it's a good thing...it's a genuine thing. But sometimes, relax Alejandro.

I'll leave you with one football example. Our goal, as a team, was to win. So let's break down how we did that. I was on defense. So our defensive goal was don't let them score. Break it down further. No touchdowns. I can keep going. But we had goals. Manageable AND measurable goals.

1. Allow 3 yards or less on first down

2. Zero big plays (20+ yards)

3. No redzone touchdowns.

4. 3 or more turnovers per game

I think over three years with that defensive coordinator, the games we succeeded in those categories we won all but one of those games.

Like I said...fight in the circle.