Create Opportunities for Good Things to Happen

I like the quote from Wayne Douglas Gretzky, which says:

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

It fits nicely with one of my life philosophies, best summarized as “create opportunities for good things to happen”. To me, that means shifting your focus away from outcomes, and towards the actions that make desired outcomes more likely.

For example, I hope to be healthy in the future, but nothing can guarantee that result. All I can do is eat healthy, exercise, practice good personal hygiene, do what the doctors tell me, and hope for the best. That way, even if I have very bad health in the future, I’ll know that I did everything I could on my end to increase my chances of a good outcome.

Many people want to change their lives for the better, but they’re not creating the possibility for those changes to happen. They’re not “taking the shots”. They want a different job, but they’re not even applying. They want a life partner, but they’re not putting themselves out there. They complain about the state of the world, but they’re not doing anything to make it better. They’re just sort of hoping life gives them what they want. And they’ll be waiting until the day they die.

Generally speaking, doing the same things produces more of the same outcomes, so if you want different outcomes in your life, you have to change. Maybe you tried a few times, and failed. Who cares? Nobody is keeping count. Try again. Perhaps pick a different strategy, or a smaller, more achievable goal.

I’m not saying it’s easy. It can take years of trial and error to even figure out what the right goal is. But as I said in Failing Forward:

“Every time you fail, you learn from your mistakes. As time goes on, you grow a thicker skin. The naysayers don’t bother you as much. You stop fearing your own failure. And even if you don’t ultimately achieve all of your goal, you still develop resilience, gain confidence, and you don’t live the rest of your life wondering “What if I had tried?””