What Tony Robbins and Sudoku Taught Me About Success

Are you familiar with the numbers puzzle called "Sudoku"? Literally, the name, from Japanese, means "numbers poison," though it could also be translated as "Number Addiction." The games are computer generated, usually, and the basic idea is pretty simple. You need to fill in the missing numbers, between one and nine, so that each 3x3 grid has all 9 digits, and each vertical and horizontal row has all 9 digits, without repeating. And the thing is, all correctly made Sudoku puzzles are solvable!

There is only one solution, but there is a solution. As I was doing my brain calisthenics with Sudoku last week, I realized that I didn't give up. I kept trying to find the answer. The reason? Because I knew there was a solution. This reminded me of the speech I heard from Anthony Robbins, when he was talking about giving up, or not. I paraphrase, but the point was that it is most difficult to keep going, to keep trying for what we want because we are not sure of the outcome!

Think about the last time you started a project or even embarked on a new hobby. If you were SURE you could play the guitar expertly after 2 years, how much longer would you keep at it? If you were certain that your new business proposal would bring in an extra $20,000 to the bottom line, how much harder would you work on it? It's only when the result is in doubt that we start to question our own motivation. Once we start doubting the result, it's not a far journey before we start doubting why we are doing what we are doing, and even, eventually, doubting ourselves.

Puzzles like Sudoku are great for keeping your mind nimble and in shape, but also for teaching stick-to-it-ivenes and perseverance. So the next time you find yourself flagging, doubting whether to continue on something that you were enthusiastic about previously, imagine that it's like a Sudoku puzzle: the answer, the result you want is guaranteed. It's just waiting for you to uncover it.

Nov 20 Best 10

Posted By Charlie3

A lot of little good things to be appreciated in the last few days. I need to be more diligent in journaling them! For instance, the drive up the mountain river valley almost like a time slip into some earlier, thatched roof Japanese time, the family that I met up there who offered me green tea and takuan pickles, and then the grandfather himself, 75 years old, who came down to teach us how to make rope from straw by kneading it with our hands.

For today:

1. Woke up to the first snow of the season. Yuto is excited for a snowfight, 2 year old Eli says she doesn’t like it.

2. Yuki calls in sick. This is really not a good news item, you see, but it does free up the day…:p

3. Abe stayed self motivated, produced an I CAN poster and sent it off to the national free school festival in Tokyo

4. Writing a letter the old friend who felt motivated to Paypal a donation to I CAN.

5. A visit by Atarashi san (the Franciscan monk) and his 2 Philippine nun friends. They were promoting their Christmas Gospel Concert. Kind of interesting when performed by Japanese, wearing incredibly politically incorrect afro wigs…in the Catholic Church.
6. A semi-productive meeting with the local newspaper about how to work together to produce a lecture/seminar on self esteem for kids in January.

7. Warm weather that melted the snow, delaying the purchase of new snow tires for which funds…I now require!

8. Finding out that 3 new non-Japanese aquaintances will be joining for Ms. Akai’s yoga weekend in the mountains this weekend. These are people who live locally, but whom I only know through facebook (susan, another nudge?) I’m happy to be able to help out Akai san in this way.

9. The first English class of the day, 9 and 10 year olds, who got genuinely excited when they matched two pictures of hippopotami during our game of concentration.

10. Getting back to these Best 10 lists!

Creativity in the Classroom: Beautiful!

Here is a guy from England who gets it almost perfectly right.
His bit about "kids are being taught that being "wrong" is the worst thing that could happen"
speaks directly to the Japanese school system.

I'm going to watch this a few times, and I invite you to, too. (about 20 min, WELL WORTH IT!)