Book Review: Stick With It

Reviewing business books has mostly been depressing as I’ve found so many of them directly contradict my values and theological understandings as a Christian and prescribe strategies for “success” wholly incompatible with the Christian walk. So I was particularly pleased with the themes Lee Colan advanced in his new book, Stick With It as they avoided such deficits. Colan reminds us (or informs those who weren’t already aware) that perseverance is the hinge on which the doors of success are opened. While strategic planning is necessary for success it is never sufficient; follow through is key.

Colan breaks down perseverance (or adherence as he refers to it) into three essential components:

1. Focus (on our mission)

2. Competence (to complete necessary actions derived from our mission)

3. Passion (for the whole of the work before us and what it stands for)

For each component, Colan provides a detailed blueprint for building and sustaining the intensity necessary to succeed. He includes useful little strategies such as relying on create once- run many times routines, and tracking leading AND lagging indicators of success to verify we are on track.

Perseverance is a lost virtue in American society, that much is clear. So many (myself included) get excited about a shiny new plan and throw ourselves into things with gusto only to slowly fade in enthusiasm and effort a few days or weeks down the line. 21 days to form a habit and all that right? But how many of us actually make it to day 22? Very few I’m afraid. It’s theoretically simple but never easy in practice: plan to stick to the plan! Keep on keeping on. Have the wise been reminding the young, the weak in discipline, the slaves to quick fixes of this key principle for centuries? YES. Nevertheless, Colan’s voice adding to the great chorus of the wise over the millennia on this matter is a welcome one; one more person reminding us of the importance in seeing things through can only help shape our character.

Anyone who has struggled with self-discipline and found that there is a part of himself that has trouble following through with the well intentioned plans the other part of himself drafts in earnest will find value in Stick With It. Hint: that means everyone. Romans chapter 7 reminds us, “²¹So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” Colan provides some clear and useful techniques for stepping on the neck of that slothful sinful nature within us. For those readers who do not subscribe to Christianity, you needn’t worry – Colan never actually references scripture or religion - he simply reaffirms the value of adherence to our mission, be it corporate or personal, and provides practical methods for achieving adherence. But his counsel overlaps so beautifully with scriptural principles that the faithful will easily recognize the wisdom in his understandings and prescriptions whether he intended to present a case for discipleship or not.

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream). On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They a...

Board Game Review: Expeditions Gears of Corruption

L ast year I reviewed Expeditions and ranked it #1 among all Stonemaier games on account of the challenging intellectual puzzle it presents. This year I have played my way through the new expansion, Gears of Corruption , and I’m delighted to let you know that it makes the base game even better. That the expansion so cohesively builds on the base game should not be a surprise to anyone who closely examines the original box for Expeditions. All expansion components perfectly fit in that box including the 2 new mechs that nestle in the placeholder cubbies clearly made for them. That can’t be coincidence. There might a few features rolled into Corruption of Gears that were developed as a result of consumer feedback on the base game (I’m looking at you, wild meeple), but my theory is that Stonemaier did a Lord of the Rings maneuver with this game and its expansions, designing the entire game with most of the additions integrated up front, and then breaking it into base + expansions fo...

Board Game Review: Expeditions

Expeditions is my favorite game in the Stonemaier Games portfolio to date. The game is a sequel to Scythe, and continues the narrative years in the future. It has taken everything I loved in Scythe and expanded on it, while chucking out everything I didn’t care for (the combat). Designed by Jamey Stegmaier, Expeditions brings us into an age when a meteorite has crash landed into Siberia and things begin to go sideways for all who encounter it. One team after another sets out to investigate the crash site and they are never heard from again. No one knows what happened to them. Now it’s our turn to find out what’s really going on, each of us leading a competing expedition team into Siberia to bring back desperately needed answers. During a game of Expeditions, all players are seated around the game board, which is made up of individually placed hex tiles laid out as shown above. At the bottom of the game board is an insert affectionately known as the base camp. The base camp holds ...