Chutes & Ladders
Have you ever played Chutes & Ladders? It is a board game in which players advance incrementally toward the top of the board, each move determined by the spin of a wheel. Along the way, players encounter chutes which remove progress by sliding them further down the board, and ladders which jump them ahead. The takeaway is simple: Life is full of ups and downs.
The path to a goal is almost never a straight line; there are bound to be setbacks along the way. Our strategy for handling setbacks when they inevitably happen is a key aspect of mastering forward momentum. When a setback occurs, many will say to get right back up and keep going, which is good advice, but I'll argue that you can take it a step further.
Strategic response to setbacks is a concept that I began exploring during college. Mistakes are excellent tools for learning, and during my college years I had no shortage of learning opportunities that were entirely tuition-free. For the sake of this topic, we'll focus on some of the more mild, yet relatable examples.
Out of necessity, saving money was a big focus of mine in college. You didn't need a lot to have fun, but you needed some, and I wanted to make the most of the little I had. But every so often, I would wake up on a Sunday morning to discover that a gremlin had occupied my body the night before, turned off my memory, and donated a generous sum of money to various downtown establishments. The first few times this happened, my response was to feel guilty, sulk for a bit, and refuse to make eye contact with the guy in the mirror for a few days. But eventually it occurred to me that I might use this guilt as an impetus for a response. So I created a simple rule that I would follow and use my guilt as fuel until it was all used up: “Each time I make a mistake, I will resolve to take an action or series of actions that I would not have otherwise taken that will more than make up for the mistake”.
There are two key elements here:
1. "…that I would not have otherwise taken" - I can't simply go back to my normal procedure. I have to get creative and take some unusually positive steps that I hadn't previously planned on taking.
2. "…that will MORE than make up for the mistake" - The idea here is not to break even or get back to where you were before; it is to go beyond where you were. The point is to take a ladder that climbs higher than the top of the chute you just came down.
In this specific example, I would look for opportunities to more than make up for my lack of frugality. I would buy different groceries during that week and hunt harder for deals. I would take on a few extra hours at my part-time job. I would skip a restaurant or outing, opting instead to exercise or stay in and study. Soon enough, I'd have covered for my mistake and removed all associated regret. After all, how can you feel regret when your mistake was the very thing that motivated you to improve?
I soon found that this same tactic could be applied to overcome many types of mistakes and setbacks:
Make a poor health choice -> spend extra time at the gym the next day, run an extra mile, swap your next sandwich for a salad
Get in an argument with a friend -> do something nice out of the blue
Do poorly on a test -> spend extra time at the library, make additional flash cards, ask for extra credit opportunity
You too can find many applications for this rule. It serves as a great way to handle adversity, remove regret, and maintain forward momentum. It allows you to use a setback to your advantage.
That’s the funny thing about Chutes & Ladders: while sliding down a chute can be discouraging, it can sometimes land you just a few spots away from a ladder that climbs even higher than your previous position - a ladder that was only available to you after you slid down the chute. And if you take the right approach, you may find that life works just the same way. So next time you find yourself sitting at the bottom of a chute, ask yourself:
How will I find the next ladder?