Getting Warmer...

Remember the hot cold game? As a kid, you’d play it to figure out if you’re getting closer or further from some mystery object, and you’re friend would say “warmer” or “colder” to tell you how you were doing? Well, let’s use that same basic concept and now apply it to something else.

Every single day, we make a number of decisions, and those decisions affect us in imperceivable ways. After going to the gym for a day, you might get a little swole, but the next day does it look any different? After having ice cream for dessert do you feel your cholesterol rising? Of course not, it sounds pretty ridiculous, but those decisions are important nonetheless because it’s after hundreds of those choices when you start to notice the results of them.

So, going back to the hot cold game. Every positive decision you make, you’re getting warmer! You’re inching closer to your goal or dream, or the person you want to be. And, in taking that positive step, you affirm that it’s something you’re committed to achieving and you reinforce the importance of taking that action. By recognizing that you’re getting warmer, you turn that distant “delayed gratification” into an acknowledgment and reward in the present moment.

Now, if you think through the hot cold game, how did you use to play it? It was a big game of trial and error! You would take a couple steps, wait for feedback, take a few more steps, wait for more feedback, until eventually you found what you were looking for. In this adult version of the game we do the same, but instead it takes the form of integrity check ins. You need to be reminded why you’re looking for that object in the first place, why that dream matters to you, so you can then compare that intent to the actions you’re taking. It’ll be pretty easy to know if you’re getting warmer or colder with each step you take.