Monday, November 3, 2014

Change your Life with Inflection Points! 11/3/14: 2162.6 to 2173.3 Miles



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Virtual Hike
Animated Street View
Segment 34 Map

This leg starts near a gas station. Fill up for the day there if you don't like filtering water from the nearby river.

There should be plenty of places to camp along the river, but much of it is fenced. I'd be careful about camping without permission. 

Either stop early or be prepared for extra miles if you plan to stop late.

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Change your Life with Inflection Points


Introduction

An inflection point is an opportunistic or purposeful change in direction. If life seems a bit dull start looking for opportunistic or intentional inflection points. They can be major, such as a change in jobs, or relatively minor like starting a new hobby. Either way, it sometimes takes courage to change, especially if the rut feels comfortable.

Opportunistic Inflection Points

In October, 2012, my son decided to write a book for Amazon. During the month, he wrote the book, "Lost!" and in the next few months, he wrote another book titled, "Snow."

While he was writing, I saw writing eBooks for Amazon as a way to make extra  money. My first book was a translation of a book written in Hebrew and Aramaic. My second book was "Simply Learn Hebrew!" 

This decision was an opportunistic inflection point. Thanks to my son, I recognized an opportunity to earn extra money and start a new hobby. 

Total Books Sold
It is easy to see the inflection point at the beginning, but is not so easy to see is the inflection points along the way.

The reason the curve for total books sold is exponential instead of straight is I frequently added more books.

In fact, I've published 49 books.




Write a User's Manual!

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Once I decide to create an inflection point I often write a user's manual. My user's manual for writing was the book "Write to Hike!" Even then, I had a 48 state reality hike in mind, and writing books was going to be a way to achieve the goal.

The first volume of the user's manual for the 48 state hike is "Roadwalking: Conversations with my Coach." The cover is at the top of the page.

A user's manual is whatever you want it to be. In general, I use a summary of my reasons for the inflection and what I hope to achieve.

Minor Inflection Points

Along the way, I intentionally create minor inflection points to test their effect on my progress. Often I record them so later I can review their effectiveness,

Conclusion

If you'd like to change something in your life, consider purposely creating a minor inflection point. If you  keep nudging yourself in a direction, eventually you can make a 90 degree change seemingly without great effort.



To keep with the theme of this post, I've decided to create an  inflection point in my walking. I want to see if it will improve my progress.

There are community groups on Fitbit where members challenge each other to get the most steps in a month. I've decided to attempt to take first place in two groups. I think averaging 10 miles a day should do it.



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