The journey to achieving your/my 2024 New Year’s resolution!

Jan. 28 '24, Month 1 of 12: Learning about my “I will write funny” objective.

Update: Math by Edison will be moving to a fee format - TBD/TBA. Onto Month 1.

I will write funny is my Resolution-objective! What’s yours?

On January 3, when I wrote, “The journey to achieving your 2024 New Year’s resolution!“, I said I would give updates. Well, here I am delivering update one - the first monthly update of twelve, on the 12-month journey to achieving my New Year’s Resolution, “I will write funny.” This is Month 1 (January 2024).

I would recommend that you read that January 3 article. Think of it as the Introduction to these next 12 months. Here are a few key points:

Bet on yourself - that’s what you’re doing when you have a Resolution.

If you know it’s going to be a slog, then the counter and the workaround are to have many reasons, as the reasons are your pillars of motivation. I will write funny, has over 20 reasons so far my #1 reason, ‘write in a way that I think is funny’, #6 write to make my heart go thump“ …

5. A resolution is a goal, it’s an objective that you’ve set on January 1.

Weak in New Year’s resolutions?

You don’t always get what you want, but you always get what you’re willing to do.

Like I said, there’s a boatload of good gold in the January 3, article.

BACKSTORY

I’m not funny. Never have been funny and had no interest in being funny or writing funny. Did my math job for decades without the need to be funny. July 2021 comes along, and BOOM, my world gets tossed upside down - I had to start caring for my aging parents, and that put a different spin on the need to somehow carve out ‘fun.’

Now, here I am, 2.5 years later, in January 2024, coming up for air and planning to bring more fun to the surface, with my Resolution, I will write funny.

I will write funny, is an easy Objective to measure: if the words I write make me smile, then, I’ve written funny! Success, yay! Objective achieved! It seems simple enough, but it isn’t, as there is a tremendous amount I do not know, e.g. What’s the understanding to be able to write funny, Obstacles to overcome (e.g. Where will I find the time?), What other Objectives do I have around this (e.g. hear things funny, say things funny, make a class of math students smile, make a 1000 people smile …)?

BACKWARDS OBJECTIVE

Start at the end of the objective, then walk backwards to the start.

Most people set an objective and then say, I’ll do this as the first step, then this as the second step, then this as the third … and if that works for them or you, wonderful, go for it. 

For any objective I do an opposite method, it’s backwards. I start by thinking about the end when the Objective has been ‘achieved’ and walk backwards to the start, to where I am now. If the objective is the 24th step, then I want to have an some sort of knowledge about the 23, 22, 21st steps, … the 15, 14, 13th … 10, 9, 8th, .. 3, 2, 1st step. Think of it as a problem-solving technique for Objectives. Backwards Objective (BO) helps me have a picture of the possible steps on this 12-month journey mentally before I physically start, which means, the steps to achievement are much clearer.

Think of Backwards Objective as a problem-solving technique for Objectives. 

I’m aiming to learn as much as possible so as to ‘experience’ the journey before I actually do step 1. It’s not daydreaming, but more visualizing the Objective, mental picturing with an intent to understand what lies ahead to plan better. It’s a mental exercise while taking jot notes.

It’s thinking to get a crystal-clear view of what the end looks like, feels like, sounds like, tastes like! I also am aiming to figure out the motivations needed to understand what I’ve committed to and signed up for, as that way, the possible obstacles that lie ahead, so I’m better prepared to will my Resolution to life. I am aiming to make the Objective so real, I can touch it!

Think of your Objective, go to the end of it (aka you’re visualizing). Great, now start walking backwards to the start, the now. Go ahead try it do it. I

The Learning 5

are the learning steps required to learn anything!

1. Objective
2. Motivation
3. Understanding the steps
4. Reinforcing the steps
5. Result & Feedback

Think of 1. to 4. of The Learning Five as the inputs you and I will have to do for our Objective, and the fifth, 5., the Result, is the output we get from those inputs. Sounds like math, doesn’t it? Inputs and outputs.

I’m using these Learning 5 to understand the 12-months that lie ahead. The Five are fantastic ways to speed up clarity, identify steps, possible obstacles and difficulties, and give feedback on where I’m weak.

For me right now, the weakest link is the understanding (i.e. How do I write funny) and I know that, but that’s not a priority in this Month 1, as all I’m doing in Month 1 is aiming to learn what lies ahead in this 12-month quest (i.e. motivation required, habits needed …).

1. Objective – The Backwards Objective approach (BO) helps give clarity and see what other obstacles and objectives will be part of this 12-month trek.

2. Motivation: I’m motivated to do this, but I also know it’s a frivolous hobby, so it gets put to the backburner whenever more important tasks with higher priority come up. So, for me to stick with this, I need many more reasons to write funny.

   So far, I have over 20 reasons:
   #1 ‘Write in a way that I think is funny’,
   #6 ‘Write to make my heart go thump’,
   #16 ‘Write to make another person smile 😊’

3. Understanding how to write funny. I have no clue, and yeah, this is the weakest link. 

4. Reinforce that Understanding (this is the reps of Understanding): this only starts once Understanding starts.

5. Results and feedback - this tells me what’s working and not working and gives me clues as to which of the first four is the problem.

SIDE-STORY

I had a student whose initial Objective was ‘Do more math,’ and I now have a student who set “Be better in math” as theirs. Of course, the ‘Do more math’ is easy to achieve, as this afternoon they could go out and do more math questions! Done … easy, on their way to achieving their Objective***. “Be better in math” is not so easy, for the simple reason that it requires a lot more thinking and planning as the path to that Objective is not obvious – my student is trying to get better in something they don’t know how to get better at. My job is to help them.
***Though, ‘Do more math’ is an objective, it’s a good objective to have if you’re weak in having successes with Objectives.

I asked my “Be better in math’ student three questions** to have them understand what lies ahead. My questions and their subsequent thinking are the start of their process to recognizing that math isn’t the reason math is hard; it’s everything else! And, have them understand how positive habits help.

**Questions asked:
1. What are five reasons you want to reach that objective/goal? 

2. What are six steps you're going to have to do and follow to get close to achieving that goal? These questions are difficult to answer as they require forward-thinking, but they are easy to answer if they've with Backwards Objective (BO), as BO helps you understand the journey to achieving that Objective.

3. What do you want to get better at – Understanding math, homework, foundation, motivation, not giving up, procrastination, test preparation, asking for help, learning on own, understanding teacher? Yeah, that's time-consuming thinking, but that's the same journey I'm on now, with 'I will write funny.' If you know you’re weak in any Objective, the probability of you giving up is increased, as you’ve never learnt what's required to increase the likelihood of success.  

WHERE’S THE MATH?

The primary way math shows up in any Objectives is to, 1) measure it and 2) with input-output. I’ll get into this in later Months, but you may have noticed that much of what’s in this Month 1, are learning strategies I write about weekly in ‘Math’ by Edison.

I’d go a step further and state that every article I’ve written to aid a math student with their math (e.g. thinking, problem-solving, foundation, not giving up, habits, how to learn), is transferable to achieving their Resolution-Objective. And that’s one of the reasons I write Math by Edison - see Math is the gift that keeps giving for 17 years.

Math isn’t a challenge because of math; it’s a challenge because of a weakness in all the non-math learning strategies~ required to get math.

~And the amazing bonus, is that those learning strategies can be transferred outside of math. Yay! To aid with achieving New Year’s Resolutions!!!!

MONTH 1 RECAP

I’ve invested a lot of time in January into learning the steps to achieve my resolution, I will write funny. I’ve gone to the end of the Objective and walked backwards. Good! But there is absolutely nothing funny written in the article above, zilch. Not good? That’s because I’m learning the inputs that are needed (how to write) to get the required output of a smile.

However, what I have done is write funny thoughts on cue cards anytime a random thought pops into my mind – so, in that sense, the journey has begun. And I’ve achieved a short-term objective in the process: to bring a smile to my face. On a January 19 cue card, I wrote, “Everyone is motivated when the journey is fun.” That brought a smile to my face, though perhaps not yours. Hey, we’re only in Month 1.

Nothing I wrote today was funny. Hmmm. So why am I smiling?

In Month 2,

Will Edison give up on his New Year’s Resolution, like so many?
Will Edison figure out what the end looks like?
Will Edison physically start this 12-month journey?
Will Edison write an article that takes less than 9 minutes to read?
Will Edison come up with a 21st, 22nd, 23rd .. reasons?
So many questions …
When will Edison write a funny sentence?

End of Month 1