I was reminded of BTNs when I read Sahil Bloom’s blog on The ABC Goal System. It’s worth the read in its entirety, but here’s the summary:

• In preparation for my first marathon, I spoke to a legendary American marathoner, who offered one piece of advice: “Make sure you have three goals: An A Goal, a B Goal, and a C Goal.” Soon after the race, I realized that the core principle behind the system applied well beyond running.
• For any arena of life, you can create an A Goal, B Goal, and C Goal. On days when you feel great, you hit your A Goal. On days when you feel ok (most days!), you hit your B Goal. On days when you feel bad, you hit your C Goal.
• The ABC Goal System removes any intimidation or guilt: As long as you hit your C Goal, you’re making forward progress.

Sahil goes on to explain:

In the context of the marathon:

• A Goal: Hit your aggressive, optimal time goal.
• B Goal: Hit your realistic, base case time goal.
• C Goal: Finish the race.

The idea is simple, yet profound:

During the race, if you start to struggle, people who only have an A Goal (most people!) are likely to fall completely off track. Once their only goal is out of sight, they have nothing to drive them forward.

If you have a B Goal and a C Goal, you always have something to keep you pushing—to keep you in the game.

The idea is this:

The ABC Goal System removes any intimidation or guilt: As long as you hit your C Goal, you’re making forward progress.

The system prevents optimal (A Goal) from getting in the way of beneficial (C Goal) and gives you the flexibility to make progress while allowing the inevitable vagaries of life to enter.

And there’s the key: “The system prevents optimal from getting in the way of beneficial.” Or as some have said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

As I’m reading this, I said to myself, “June has something like this with respect to practicing piano.” And sure enough, she explained her BTN goal system. BTN? Yep:

Better than nothing.

Often, she’d like to practice for an hour or two, go over all the pieces she’s working on, work through some problem areas, etc. But what if she can’t? What’s the BTN? 10 – 15 minutes of a few warmup scales and playing through the pieces one time. It’s better than nothing.

This works in all areas of life, even the spiritual disciplines. For example:

God would rather you meet with him for 10 – 15 minutes than NOT meet with him for an hour.

Try it! You may find the idea useful. Recently, I used it to get me off dead center on a project I was working on. I defined three levels of success with the third being, “Just get started.” And I did. I got started. I didn’t finish that day, but I did finish not many days later.

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. (Proverbs 24.30 – 34, ESV) – Maybe getting started would have helped!