Baseball’s infield fly rule seems strange at first. It says that when there are runners on first and second with less than two out, and the ball is popped up to the infield, then it’s an automatic out, even if the fielder drops it. Without the infield fly rule, the fielder might let the ball drop on purpose. Then they could turn an easy double-play at second and third base. A pop-up would turn into two outs in a way that isn’t fun for the players or fans because it takes no skill. The rule is there to make the game more fun.

Professional sports are filled with rules like this. Basketball has goal tending, soccer and hockey have offsides, and in football, you can’t catch a pass if you run out of bounds. Rules like this often come after their absence was exploited. For example, goaltending was introduced in 1944 to stop a 6’ 10” center from making the game less fun for everyone (else).

So, when designing an infinite game, you might need seemingly arbitrary rules. Probably it’s better to notice when the game is too easy and figure out a way to make it harder. Based on the examples above, you should also look for times when you play the game in an odd way that gets you rewards with no skill or work. It might seem fun at first, but easy games get boring, and then you’ll quit.

In the last post, I wrote about Forever Goals, which are outcomes I will always want. It’s something I can approach or maintain, not achieve. They are not SMART goals (i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). For example, a SMART goal is phrased like this: “losing 5 pounds by the end of the year by doing 4 hours of cardio per week and tracking calories.” A Forever Goal is more like “be fit.” A Forever Goal could have a logo. It should make a good tattoo.

I think a SMART goal is more likely to succeed, especially in the short-term. But I fail a lot of personal SMART goals. For some of my aspirations, it hasn’t caused me to give up. I think it’s because I know I don’t really care about the SMART version of the goal. I care about the Forever version. If done right, a Forever Goal can succeed … forever.

Let’s compare the two.

In a SMART goal, the Relevancy is how much you want the goal. Relevancy is baked into the idea of a Forever Goals, so no difference there. Forever goals are also Measurable in the sense that there are measures that I want to increase or maintain, like my Personal Record (PR) lift or mile time. The difference is that the goal is the direction, not necessarily a number. A number can be achieved, but a direction is forever.

The similarities end there because Forever Goals aren’t Time-bound or Achievable and not particularly Specific. If you stop there, this is a good enough reason for them to fail. You could certainly support a Forever Goal with milestones that are SMART, which I have done. But now I prefer designing an infinite game instead.

The issue with SMART milestones is that failing them is de-motivating. If I do the cardio and track my calories, but don’t lose 5 pounds, I might be discouraged. This is true even if you become more fit. Personally, I fail almost all of my fitness milestones. But, I do still work out regularly. I do generally eat healthy. The measures of my fitness are mostly trending positive. I think the reason is that I have found a way to make doing the right things fun. Working out, cooking, and even grocery shopping are games to me.

I have also found programming to be incredibly fun and do it for enjoyment. I never made any kind of SMART milestone to get better at programming, but have no problem doing the work that makes me better at it.

SMART-like goals were imposed on me by employers, so I guess they were in the mix. If the only reason to program was to meet the goals of my employers, I think I would have given up a while ago (or not have been as successful or happy).

This is on my mind as I struggle to figure out a way to make learning Spanish more fun. I do the work (mostly), but it’s subject to wild swings in motivation. I have been relying on habits and discipline to make progress, which I’ll discuss next.

The end of the year, for me, is a time of very high motivation. My intention is to run through the new year with whatever goals I was planning. I adjust and figure out what I can actually do.

I also put in permanent (or hard to change) environmental changes. I believe in Environment Hacking, where I put things in my environment that trigger my behavior or remove things that are triggering behavior I don’t want. For example, to get off of nearly all social media, I removed the apps and blocked the sites in my /etc/hosts file.

My motivation goes up and down throughout the year. I am personally highly motivated from January through my birthday in early April, which happens to coincide with the first thirteen weeks of the year. I use this time to plan for when my motivation will crater. I do things that will make it easy to keep on track. For me this means not having to plan, just execute.

Here are some examples of what I have done when my motivation is high:

1. When I feel like cooking, I cook something healthy in bulk. I’ll have something good to eat later when I don’t feel like cooking. I buy tempeh in bulk and freeze it.
2. I use widgets on my phone homepage to show me how I am doing with goals or help me do them (e.g. DuoLingo and Cronometer).
3. I have a pull-up bar in my office to encourage me to dead hang more. There’s a dumbbell set next to my desk. I have a underdesk pedaler. I am generally trying to make my day less sedentary.
4. I bought a print that I find inspiring and hung it above my monitor (more on this later).

The general idea is to put things in places where you can’t help to see them to make it easy to do the behavior later when your motivation drops.

I’ve been writing about how I’m implementing 4DX from The 4 Disciplines of Execution [affiliate], but I’m stuck on the 4th discipline, which is to have accountability meetings.

In 2024, when I set out to write Swimming in Tech Debt, I started out thinking that I could have accountability by just talking about it publicly, but quickly realized that that wouldn’t work. To fix that I joined the Useful Authors community and participated in several writing accountability group meetings per week. I still go to them for marketing accountability. This kind of accountability (a group with similar goals) works well for me.

This kind of accountability is what 4DX expects because it’s targeting teams of people that work together. I have mimicked it with my author group and in similar groups like Toastmasters.

Another kind of accountability is to have a coach (which I have done with Crossfit and running). That’s fine when you don’t have your own plan and just want a coach to provide one. This is kind of like working for a boss or customer who decides what we’re doing and I just need to execute. When I am clueless, this works well for me.

My problem is that my fitness plan for 2026 is very specific, and I don’t want a coach (yet). But a group of like-minded lifters will be hard to find. I don’t have a good solution.