Yesterday, we talked about wishful thinking. My definion? "Thinking an effect will or could happen without a cause."

Right away, you might realize some wishful thoughts you have. "I want to lose weight," but you're not changing your diet.

But probably the easiest short-term gain is in identifying something that regularly fails to achieve your desired outcome, but you keep doing it out of wishful thinking.

For me, depending on my sleep schedule and diet, there tend to be certain times of the day that I'm dead useless to do any work unless I make special preparations. Yet, sometimes I'll keep trying to work during those periods and get not a damn thing done, while burning myself out in the process.

I've been trying to recognize that, and replace those times with things like:

1. A meeting for a coffee with someone I want to catch up with, where I don't have to be particularly sharp,

2. Totally abstract brainstorming in front of a whiteboard with no other materials (maybe paper, certainly not internet access), to just see if I come up with anything,

3. Lifting weights or going for a swim first, after which I can usually do good work.

But I've gone through periods of weeks, even months, of doing the same stupid routine of trying to grind through sections of the day without a workable gameplan, hoping -- wishing -- that things will go well, knowing damn well that they won't.

Want a huge life gain right now? Sit and think about your last few weeks. I bet there's something you keep repeating that's not producing the desired result. How you could tweak it to do better? Really think on this, do it, it can be huge for killing frustrating off and producing more results.