That if something goes wrong it’s not a failure – it’s feedback!

When I read that I thought, WOW! That’s a revolutionary way of looking at what’s happening in my life. If I’m not progressing in the way that I want to then it’s not a failure it’s feedback.

What do we do with feedback?

Feedback is called feedback because it feeds back into the system and modifies it so that the situation that produced the feedback doesn’t happen again (in the case of negative feedback) or does happen again in the case of positive feedback.

This morning I got on the scales again, it being Saturday which is weigh day in our house. Well I was disappointed at first to find that my weight was exactly the same as last week and the week before.

Then I thought, “Hand on! This is feedback, not failure! The feedback is that I haven’t modified my behavior enough to start loosing the weight. I must make more effort to start the weight loss process”. Which is a much more positive slant on the situation.

That 1lb of body fat contains about 4100 calories.

Here’s something else:

In one hour of aerobic exercise I can expect to burn about 300 calories.

So to burn off 1lb of fat I’ve got to exercise for 13 hours and 40 minutes.

Wow! That’s a lot of exercise!

Judi Sohn on the Web Worker Daily blog posted a great article about how to be Productively Unproductive Online. Without Guilt.. I’m not sure I agree with all of the points about being unproductive being ‘OK’; but it was the guilt thing that was an apt reminder for me.

We all have a choice in how we spend our time, be it productively or unproductively. If we recognize that the choice is ours and take responsibility for having made that choice then there is no guilt. It simply cannot exist in an environment where we take responsibility for our choices.

For example I think I’m a good enough parent; but then have occasion to yell at my daughter then I get stressed. Or if I think I’m a caring husband and then have an argument with my wife I get stressed.

So I have to realize that I can be the one thing (good parent, caring husband) and still do the other thing.

(Actually I knew this before; but it’s a great one to be reminded of now and again (and again)).