Explore infinitely using The Power List - My first 52 Weeks of Data Science and more!

Disclaimer

No, this is not a pledge about what I’m going to be doing over the next 52 weeks or my new year resolution for 2020…

No, I’m not going to bore you with updates about my progress on weekly or bi-weekly basis, how I felt, what I did, what I missed etc…

No, I’m not trying to sell you something…

I’m hoping this will be a short story that everyone can see themselves through my lens by changing very little things specific to your circumstances!

Oh, and maybe give you that little nudge you need to try it yourself!

What is the Power List?

You’ve probably come across this in different names, forms and variations; essentially it is little priceless tool that can turn your life around if you’re determined to.

I first came across this when I was looking to do some learning for personal development and I signed up to Kyle’s “Data Science Dream Job” platform to delve into Data Science, de-dust my maths & probabilities forgotten skills and test myself in learning a new coding language (Python).

To my surprise, part of the course, was not about Data Science and all the geeky things I was prepared to do, rather than some “peculiar” concepts about growth mindset, grit, new habits, etc… As I would discover later, I was already in a “Growth Mindset” mode, open to new ideas and things that would be the catalyst for what really takes to embark on a career change into such a technical field like Data Science Consulting!

One of the video lectures, was about the MFCEO project, a podcast run by Andy Frisella, explaining about the Power list and I was so intrigued to find out more. So, there I went, switching gears from Data Science to reading books about mindset and listening to the MFCEO podcast about personal transformation and of course …the Power List.

It’s a very simple concept:

• Every day, you plan your day and take a note of 5 tasks that will push you forward in your career goals, personal targets or whatever you need to achieve
• You can use a notebook and a pen
• Yes, you heard right, you need to start writing things down
• 5 tasks. Not 3, not 7, just 5. Stick to 5
• If you execute at least 3 in any given day, you’ve won the day. Big “W” in your notepad!
• If you win 4 days or more in any given week, you’ve won the week
• If you win 3 weeks or more in any given month, you’ve won the month
• And so on…

What to NOT include

This is supposed to be about personal development:

• Not things you’re comfortable with
• Not everyday tasks you need to do anyway
• Not things you already have the skills to do

What to INCLUDE

All the things that contribute towards personal development:

• New habits you would like to pick up
• Training on new skills you've identified you need going forward
• Support system around confidence and self-awareness to help you going in difficult times

Also, don't be afraid to try things that might fail, and you probably will at the beginning.

Goals

Setting your own goals and identifying where you'd like to aim for in the future, is an important part of the process. I'm not going to cover this part here as it relates to individual goals and aspirations and this should be part of your internal discovery and journey. The Power List can be a tool to help you keep track of this process and keep yourself honest during execution, so this is just a tool, not the objective itself.

E.g. You can set your goal to any of these…

• Break into Data Science Consulting (my goal)
• Lose weight
• Become an actor
• Run a marathon
• Learn a new language
• Learn to dance/sing/etc…

Really, when you're daydreaming about your future and all the great things you'd like to do...this is it. Don't sell your future short, dream big and follow your passion! Stop right there and right down what you were daydreaming for.

Why? Because you can!

Who am I or anyone else to tell you otherwise ??. Dream big and act big, don't set yourself up for mediocre targets.

But How?

Cheer up and focus on actions that will bridge your current state to your ultimate goal.

And guess what! This is not by contemplating or procrastinating rather than getting your a*s to execute the 5 tasks you’ve chosen that relate to this goal every day. Then measure it at the end of the week, and start again. Day in, Day out. Week in, week out. Month in, month out. Until you’re there.

You’ll be surprised by the cumulative effect of persistent effort over a period of time and how it builds up. Don’t let your feelings or any excuses that you will naturally come up with to stray you off the tasks. A lot of these might be valid; everyone has busy lives with work, family and personal difficulties that seem impossible to overcome in order to carve out time for this stuff.

Where there is a will, there is a way

If you’re looking for ways to strengthen your will and confidence here are some tips:

• Take the first step. Do your day 1 tasks. Execute.
• You will never convince yourself by deliberating and planning, just execute. Do the damn task.
• Then what? You guessed correctly. Do your day 2 tasks! ??
• Don’t look at what it would be in a month or 2 and how quickly you’ll get there – in other words don’t contemplate!
• Focus on the day. Win the day. Every day for that day.
• Don’t worry about the day that you missed. We have all missed days.
• Every day you can hit the reset button and win.
• Next day, don’t think of yesterday’s win. Do what you must do to win the new day.
• Don’t spend too much time on adding things up and tracking your progress other than noting in your Power List Notebook, the W or the L for the day. Did you Win or did you Lose?
• And move on to next day!

It’s a numbers game and being consistent and persistent is going to get you more wins. You lost once? Win twice to turn it around. That simple. You're in control of your own destiny, goals, and ultimately your life!

Tools for Self-Improvement

Are there any tools to help you stick to the tool (The Power List)?

There’re a few things that all relate to your Self-improvement:

• Your goals – What am I trying to achieve?
• Your determination to achieve your goals – Are you really determined to do this?
• Your belief system – Do you believe you can do this?
• Your self-image – Does that relate to who you think you are?
• Your habits – Do my current habits support my effort to achieve my goals?

You might be thinking by now… “Wow, we’re getting pretty deep here”. But are we?

e.g. How are you supposed to become a dancer (Goal), if you’ve never danced before (belief system), never stretched or exercised properly the last 5 years (habits), if you think of yourself as non-artistic (self-image), all of which will likely bend your will (determination) to do this?

I’m not helping, I know, but the short answer is you don’t have to work all these things out immediately. Why? Cause you have the Power list to break it down and start working on these. One at a time:

• Start with your goal and work backwards
• Break things down to steps that will take you there, skills you’re missing, or learning that you need to do
• Listen to podcasts that speak on the topic
• Read books that help you open up your perspectives and understand yourself better
• Get a mentor: someone who had done this before, can provide valuable advice
• Find a buddy to hold you accountable while executing
• And all along: use the Power List, spend time doing these tasks and improving your execution

My first 52 weeks

I’ve been using the Power list for over 50 weeks now, and soon will be closing a full year of so many things I’ve managed to do by just using this simple tool day in day out on top of my professional and family life.

Goals

As much as I’d love to, this post is not about my personal goals, everyone has their own, rather than the journey itself. You might have guessed anyway, for me its about bringing together Data Science and Consulting.

Perhaps one thing I’d say, is that it’s OK to update your goals as you go along and understand what you want to do better.

• It’s not OK to lower the bar based on some virtual timeline or wrong self-belief
• There’s no big wins or or big fails, don’t get bogged down to this as a deterrent to your goals.
• If it makes it easier, you’ll probably be in “fail” mode until you get there ??
• Be comfortable with failure and find ways to get back to it.
• Fail fast so you can learn and figure things out quicker.

Habits

This has been the cornerstone of my journey so far and it boils down to the following key habits I’ve established:

• Waking up early (4’30am) – This has allowed me to carve out 1.5h a day of net, focused, concentrated time on my goals and the things that need to be doing. This is huge, as it amounts to a full 8h working day extra in a week if you manage to win 5 days a week
• Reading books – I have never read more than a book a year, and if so, and that was probably a novel on holidays etc… Over the last year I’ve read 5 books already and already halfway through one more as we speak. Never before have I ever been looking forward to get into that train for my daily work commute other than picking up my book from where I left it last time :)
• Studying – I have no quantitative measure of the amount of studying I’ve done, but I've managed to embed that into my weekly routine as this helps build strong technical background for breaking into Data Science. So, lots of technical books reading, papers, tutorials etc… and this has been on top of “Reading books” section above
• Exercising – I have established a 15-20’ daily exercise routine that allows me to keep my body and mind fresh. A little espresso, but you know, different kind!

Skills

The habits above have allowed me to develop some completely new skills or improve some existing ones, to the extend I can confidently consider them part of me now ??

• Coding and programming in Python – Although I'm not new in programming, I had never done so for more than 15 years and Python has been a new language for me. I’m still learning and optimising my techniques but I can comfortably (with the necessary Googling) turnaround an algorithm in python including loading, processing and visualising data
• Machine learning and modelling for Data Science – Once used in academic projects, now have been able to bring myself back to basic ML modelling using Linear & Logistic regression and Neural networks
• Maths and Statistics – no more rusty relics, rather than fresh and ever developing tools in my arsenal
• Music – Back into Piano and Guitar playing for some relaxing moments and daydreaming
• Blogging – Writing has always been my weak point, but nevertheless I have forced myself to put pen on paper and start blogging on LinkedIn and Medium. This year I wrote 5-6 articles and still refining and improving my style.

Belief system

I’ll leave this as an open question, but how do you think my belief system has changed over the last year based on the things I have done so far? ??

Determination

We all start at the same point, ground zero, when it comes to change. And all you have is a little angel in one shoulder telling you "You can do it" and another (fallen) angel in the other shoulder telling you, "Give up, this is not for you" (little devil).

The journey is long, and they’re both chewing your ears all the time, so no matter how determined you are at the beginning, throughout all the ups and downs in your journey, what matters is who do you choose to listen to.

Who have you listened to so far ?

Self-image

Rediscovering your self-image sounds like the end of the journey but is really the catalyst to discovering what your goals are and how you're going to get there. In the beginning it feels like the chicken and egg question. Which one comes first?

The only answer I’ve found so far is that you have to break through your current self-image no matter what, even if you don’t know what your target self-image is.

Self exploration and continues curiosity is the key to unlocking the questions and you’ll find it along the way. Keep asking the questions, keep searching and keep executing your daily routine. Accumulate knowledge, skills and mindset being ready for the right moment.

There’s no single answer, you have to keep digging that wall with a teaspoon, like Andy Dufresne did in Shawshank Redemption!

What next for me?

Well, you might have guessed, this doesn’t stop here. My goals have evolved over the last year along with me, so I’m adjusting them accordingly and keep going setting the bar higher by integrating Data Science into my professional and personal life!

Perhaps, as my only new year resolution, I’ll treat myself to a new sharp teaspoon to get back into digging that wall.

Over to you now!

#PowerList #52weeks #goals #disclaimer #ExploreInfinitely #DataScience #tryityourself