Mario, Power Moons, and Making Progress (3-18-26)

Last week was about how Mario contains multitudes. This week is about Mario, collecting Power Moons, and making progress.

Super Mario Odyssey is one of the most recent and one of my favorite Mario games. Your ultimate goal is to defeat Bowser. To do this, you need to progress through a variety of open world levels. The only way to move from one level to the next is to collect enough Power Moons to power your spaceship to fly to the next level. Here’s the thing though, these levels give you a lot of space to explore. You could spend hours jumping around, fighting bad guys, collecting coins, etc. without ever gathering the Power Moons you need to make progress.

Let’s connect this to work. Our Mario example was about how I could play a level for hours without ever getting anywhere. Has this ever happened to you at work? Have you ever come to the end of the day and realized you had done a lot of things, but didn’t actually do anything that enabled meaningful progress? Obviously, this never happens to me (he says while infusing the text with as much sarcasm as possible). It’s easy to get lost in email, conversations, meetings, etc. without ever actually moving the needle.

I’ve found the only way to avoid this is to be disciplined and intentional about consistently revisiting what my priorities are, where I am in relation to them, and what steps I need to take to make meaningful progress. Then, the most important part is working to make my calendar reflect my priorities. Have you ever looked at your calendar and realized it didn’t reflect your priorities? This never happens to me (#moresarcasm). The world is louder and more complex than ever before, if we aren’t clear on what we need to chase to make progress we will never move forward.

The challenge- How will you ensure you are gathering Power Moons to enable progress?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

What would cause me to miss achieving my goals? (1-28-26)

This week will be the last in our series about questions we should ask ourselves at the beginning of the year. This week I want us to ask ourselves, “What would cause me to miss my goals?”

In January we spend time outlining goals and objectives. We focus our efforts on identifying what winning looks like. It’s easy to assume that things will go well, but the chances of everything going well is slim to none.

Recently, I asked myself, “What would cause me to miss my goals? What would cause me to lose?” I quickly identified a few things. I will miss my goals if I don’t invest my time in the right things. I’ll miss if I don’t carve out the time to do the right things. I’ll miss if I’m not being intentional about orchestrating change management efforts. I’ll miss if I don’t get certain projects moving in Q1.

After identifying the things that would make me lose, I took a second to look at my plan for the week. I quickly realized that I had been caught in the swirl. I was doing a lot of things, but they likely weren’t the right things. They were a distraction. As a result, I moved a few things around on the calendar, blocked time for key work, and I gave myself permission to be slow and non-responsive on a few other things. Ultimately, I was able to make good progress on things that mattered. Looking forward, I’m already blocking time and thinking about other things I can do to minimize my chance of missing and increase my chance of being successful.

How does this connect to work? The world moves fast. If we aren’t intentional about things we might end up participating in behaviors that will lead to us not reaching our goals. Spending time doing a pre-mortem and identifying the key things that go wrong brings awareness and gives us a chance to gameplan on how we will handle these things. Be honest. Take a look at this month. How much time did you spend on things that will lead to you being successful vs how much time did you spend on things that will result in you missing? What is getting in the way of you making progress?

The challenge: Will you identify what would cause you to miss your goals and then take action?

Bonus- You can apply this thinking to your personal life. Something that will make me miss my physical health goals is pushing myself too hard too fast. My shoulders aren’t what they used to be, and after pushing them too hard with weight that was heavier than I should have been doing I needed to take a few weeks off for them to heal. I’ll go a lot slower from here on out.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Mario Kart Cup Challenges, Stretch Goals, and Performance Reviews (8-20-25)

Golden Dash Cup 3 stars 150cc (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) - YouTube

Last week was about Mario Kart, and choosing the right set up for the right task. This week is about Mario Kart cup challenges, stretch goals, and performance reviews.

In Mario Kart you can do grand prix cup challenges, where you race on 4 courses to earn championship cups and stars. On the easier difficulties I have gold cups and three stars on all of the courses. This isn’t true on the hardest difficulty. My stretch goal is to get all gold cups and all of the gold stars, but I’m not there yet. On the hardest difficulty I have some gold cups with stars, some gold cups without stars, some silver or bronze, and some without any cups.

With the information you know, would you say I’m bad at Mario Kart? I’d hope not. I hope that you’d say that I’ve demonstrated mastery at some levels, and now that I’m playing at the highest level I’ve shown I can perform well, even if I haven’t perfectly hit all of my stretch goals. Even if I never get all gold cups and all gold stars at the highest difficulty, I know that I’ve delivered in Mario Kart.

So where exactly is this going? I’m going to have a performance check-in with my supervisor on Friday. Much like Mario Kart, I’ve set some aggressive stretch goals. Much like Mario Kart, I don’t have perfect gold cups with three stars for all of them. During the conversation I’ll share how I have one gold cup with 3 stars, and I’m proud of how I crushed it. I’ll show some of my silver cups as well. Even though they aren’t gold, I’m proud of them too. I’ll also be honest about the challenges where I couldn’t get a cup and the lessons I’ve learned. Maybe the course had unexpected turns. Maybe I just wasn’t ready. Maybe I didn’t have the right set up. Maybe I had to choose to prioritize getting gold in one cup over other cups. At the end of the day, I am trying to play at the highest level possible, so I understand that it will be next to impossible to hit all of my stretch goals. Falling short is inevitable. The only way I’d hit all of my goals is if I was playing on easy mode, and where is the challenge and fun in that?

The challenges: Will you be brave enough to set stretch goals? Will you be comfortable when you don’t reach all of them?

Bonus thought: Since I’ve already did my performance conversation write up in Mario Kart language, am I good? Do I need to do anything else? If someone from HR could check on that for me, I’d appreciate it 😉

Bonus thought 2: Obviously this is a not-so-secret challenge to my boss to see if he can deliver feedback to me through the lens of Mario Kart. I’ll make sure I update you on how well he does.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Chasing MacGuffins (5-7-25)

Explore the mystery of the Ark of the Covenant with Indiana Jones on ...

This will be the final entry in the series inspired by storytelling tricks and mechanics. This week is about chasing MacGuffins.

A MacGuffin is a plot device that serves as a catalyst for action throughout the story. It’s something that characters are motivated to acquire. Often, the MacGuffin is an object, but it could also be a goal or an idea. For example, a popular object MacGuffin would be the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was from the first Indiana Jones film. The movie follows Indiana Jones, an archaeologist, as he goes on a globetrotting adventure to find and secure the Ark before the Nazis can get it and use its powers. All the action, conflict, and movement all are driven toward acquiring this MacGuffin. Without the MacGuffin, there wouldn’t be an Indiana Jones story. There wouldn’t be anything driving him forward to achieve.

Let’s connect this to life. Sometimes, I find myself working and running around endlessly. Then, I pause for a moment, and I realize that I’m not sure what I was running toward or why I was running. Has this ever happened to you? Maybe we all need a MacGuffin to bring clarity and lead to action. Sometimes, my MacGuffin is a medal, which serves as a catalyst for me to train and prepare for a race. Sometimes, my MacGuffin is a specific deliverable, which causes me to really focus on what matters. Sometimes, my MacGuffin is the idea of being an awesome dad, which causes me to be a lot more in tune with how I’m parenting.

The challenge: What is a MacGuffin worthy of your pursuit?

Bonus fun question: If your MacGuffin is an idea, what physical thing would embody that idea? Maybe it’s embodied by a statue, a diamond, or something else.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Q1 2025 Self-Reflection (3-26-25)

It’s a bonus blog! I hope you’re excited 😉 For the past few years I’ve used the last Wednesday of the first quarter to share a blog on doing quarterly check-ins for work and yourself. This will be a long email, because I’m sharing my own self-assessment.

We have our first performance management coming up in the next month. During this check-in we will talk through some of these questions. What are 2-3 highlights? What are 2-3 opportunities to do better? What are some learnings from Q1 I can apply moving forward?

What does this have to do anything? While this is great for work, we could apply this same thinking to our personal lives as well. What are some of your goals for 2025? How did you do with them in Q1? Have you stopped to CELEBRATE your progress? Stop RIGHT NOW and celebrate something you’ve achieved. After you celebrate, then you can reflect and see if there are any gaps. If you have gaps, why do you have gaps? What happened? What got in the way? How can you adjust to reach your goals for this quarter?

The challenge: Will you take the time to do a quarterly check-in? What changes will you make to set yourself up for the rest of the year?

Bonus: Here is my review based on the dimensions in my life I set goals for. Hopefully, it sparks a thought or two for you. In case no one has told you lately, “YOU GOT THIS!”

Rebuild (B+)- This is my word/theme for the year. I wanted to make repairs AND extensive changes. I’m giving myself an B+, because all of the momentum I’ve built back and am taking advantage of. I’d say the trend for all categories is that the first 6 weeks of the quarter were bumpy, and from there I’ve been on a great upward trajectory.
Mental Health (A)- The goal is to feel like I’m in a good, strong, solid mental state. I feel I’m in the best headspace that I’ve been in a hot minute. I have a lot to love and celebrate in life right now. I think I’m also doing a better job of practicing radical acceptance and recognizing “it is what it is.”
Physical Health (B-)- The goal is to build strength, aiming for increasing strength by around 15%. I couldn’t find an exercise routine or rhythm in January or February. I’ve been crushing it in March and making sure I’m prioritizing my time to hit the gym. I’m reestablishing my strength baselines, so I can track that more throughout the year. I would like to walk/run more, mainly so I can make sure I’m prepared for my obstacle course races. First one is in May!
Family (B+)-The goal is to feel like I’m being an amazing husband and dad. I’m feeling pretty good about things right now. I can feel my family start to evolve into the next phase with my son turning 11 and my daughter almost 13. It’s cool watching them grow and leading beside my wife. I will honestly say I’ve been working more hours than I’d like, but I think that will balance out in the future.
Career (B+)- The goal is to feel like I’m delivering magic. From the end of the year through Q1, I feel like I’ve been delivering some Hufflepuff magic, and that folks are valuing it. The whole feeling valued piece is huge. I’m also on the verge of rolling out a few things I’ve been working on for the better part of a year, and that’s adding even more positivity. With that said, the past few months have also been a humbling experience and a reminder that it’s impossible to juggle everything all of the time. I’ve definitely had a few balls drop in Q1. Some of them have been rubber. A couple of them have been glass. As part of the radical acceptance piece, I’m doing better at embracing it for what it is and I’m proud that despite all of the crazy I was still able to do some pretty darn amazing things. Luckily, the crazy is starting to become more manageable. In the midst of all the change and organizational evolution, I feel like I’m getting some stability, which might be a weird thing to say 😉. As we continue to fill open roles, we can better distribute the workload. Additionally, as we take confident steps toward embracing a new future, this stability will become stronger and enable the team and I to reach our potential.
Financial (B)- The goal is to ensure we are saving/investing money in the right way. I’ve already shifted money for investments. I am wasting a bit too much money on eating out right now. I want to tighten that up in Q2.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Parenting, Cleaning, and Adapting as a Leader (2-12-25)

Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods. | Life ... This week we are going to kick off a series about lessons I’ve learned from being a dad. This week is about parenting, cleaning the house, and being flexible and adaptable when leading others.

When I was a kid and would help my family clean the house it would look like this. My mom would blast music (usually Prince, Rod Stewart or Alanis Morisette). With the music blaring we would all start jumping in and helping with little direction. When I initially tried this approach with my own kids, it didn’t go so well. In case I’ve never mentioned it, we have some neurodivergence in my house, so cleaning the way I did as a kid is EXTREMELY overwhelming for my kids. The loud music is overstimulating and the lack of clarity on what needs to be done is anxiety inducing. Trying to clean this way would result in everyone being overstimulated, grumpy, and the house not getting clean. #failure

After failing a few times, I needed to reevaluate the situation. At the end of the day, my goals are to get the house clean and to help my kids become more self-sufficient. I’ve learned to be flexible in HOW I achieve those goals. When I clean with my kids, we don’t play music to avoid overstimulation. Also, I create a list of the tasks and add some gamification, so there is clear direction. We don’t clean the house. We save Hyrule! (a nod to The Legend of Zelda video game series) My list might look like, “Beat the Water Temple aka Clean the Bathrooms for 50 points,” or “Straighten up Goron City aka The Kitchen for 20 points.” My kids then methodically work through the list, accomplishing tasks, and checking stuff off until the house is clean. It’s very different from the way I grew up cleaning, but it is still very effective.

Where exactly is this going? As a leader, it’s your job to enable the other people around you to be successful. Often, this means being strict about the goal, but being flexible in HOW to achieve that goal. Did my kids have to clean like I did in order to be successful? No. We found a way that works for them and enabled their success. Think about work. How often has a leader more or less forced you to do something their way, even though it wasn’t the only path to success? What were the consequences of that? When I’ve had those experiences, I’ve often felt disengaged and often saw how more value could have been provided if the leader would have just been a little more open to thinking differently.

The challenge: As a leader are you being adaptable and flexible enough to enable others to be successful?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Goals and Celebrating Progress (2-5-25)

This is the last in our series about goals. This week is about celebrating progress.

If I’m being honest, I’m not particularly happy with how January played out for me. There was travel, a lot of all-day workshops, and an illness that knocked me on my butt for like 1.5 weeks. It left me feeling like I hadn’t accomplished anything meaningful on the work or life front.

I was talking about something work related and sharing how I felt like a failure and the person replied with, “But look at all the progress that has been made. It’s not done yet, but it’s come so far. In fact, you’re so much further than I thought you’d be at this point on it.” It was a great reminder that I had been so focused on the finish line that I had never paused to appreciate my progress.

Let’s make some connections. Have you ever had a week or month go by, looked up, and then felt like a complete failure? Please tell me I’m not the only one 😉 It’s easy to get so lost in the daily grind that you don’t ever realize that all those steps you have taken add up. I’d bet that if you would just pause a moment to realize how far you’ve come, you would feel completely different.

The challenge: Will you appreciate and celebrate the progress you have made?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Goals and Setbacks (1-29-25)

Last week was about goals and means. This week is about goals and setbacks.

One of my goals this year was about completing obstacle course races. My first race was supposed to be last Saturday, and it was going to be the Abominable Snow Race. The only problem is that I came down with a nasty flu bug on Thursday, and I didn’t stop running a fever until Saturday night. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to make the race, and that was the first goal I missed for the year. At this point, I have two choices. I can continue to wallow in how sad I am that I missed a goal or I can regroup and get back after it. I may have missed that race, but I can make sure I’m even more prepared for my next one. (Pic is the Yeti and I from last year)

Now let’s make some connections. Have you ever missed achieving one of your goals at work? I have. Have you ever got lost in the downward spiral after missing out? I have. I have sat there and stewed, replaying every mistake, listing every excuse, and becoming so fixated on the negative that I became stuck. None of this was particularly helpful. None of this helped me move forward. Eventually, I had to accept the reality that I missed a goal, and the only thing I could do is regroup, refocus and go again.

The challenge: How will you regroup and refocus when you experience a setback?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Goals and Means (1-22-25)

Last week was about discussing goals with others. This week is about being clear on the means we will use to achieve those goals.

I mentioned last week that one of my goals is to get stronger, more specifically it’s to increase the amount of weight I lift on a weekly basis by 15-20% for the year. At this point, the outcome is relatively clear. However, the means to get there are not so clear, and the means matter. I could increase my strength in a lot of ways. I could take steroids, which likely wouldn’t be good for me or my family. I get super grumpy when I take steroids for poison ivy 😉 I could cheat by sandbagging my baseline, which would make any improvements larger than they are. I could follow a variety of exercise splits (push/pull/legs, full body, etc). I could workout 10 minutes per day or 3 hours per day. The means matter. Some of them are cheating. Some of them have negative impacts on me and others. Some of them involve making other trade-offs I would need to consider.

What does this have to do with work? Often, we are clear about the outcomes we want, but we are not as clear about the behaviors and means we want to see as people deliver those outcomes. Have you ever seen someone deliver the desired outcome, but leave a trail of dead bodies on the path to get there? I have. Have you ever seen someone deliver the desired outcome, but they caused way more chaos and fire drills than were necessary? I have. Have you ever seen anyone deliver an outcome, but they didn’t collaborate or inform folks along the way? I have. When people reach the outcome via poor means, that’s not a success and it likely does a fair amount of damage along the way. The means matter. As leaders and colleagues, we all need to be clear about the behaviors and means that we hope to see from each other.

The challenge: What are your goals? HOW will you go about achieving those goals?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Discussing Your Goals with Others (1-15-25)

Last week was about setting goals that resonate. This week is about the importance of discussing your goals with others.

A little over a week ago, my wife and I got a room in the library with a whiteboard and spent a few hours brainstorming goals for our family relating to health (physical, mental, social), raising the kids, building our relationship, family trips, and things to do with the house. Some of those are individual and some are joint goals. Basically, it’s a kick-off meeting for our family. Yes, it was the most romantic date ever 😉

Investing this time to share our goals with each other helps us do a few things. First, it creates a shared understanding of individual goals, so we can support each other. Second, talking through goals gives us a chance to make sure we are on the same page. We both have a goal of helping our kids continue to become more self sufficient, but there are a lot of different ways to do that. We were able to talk through what we felt we needed to focus on. Last but not least, sharing goals helps us see potential conflicts so we can handle them. For example, if we have goals about what major house projects we’d like to do that impacts how we will think about budgets for vacation and other spending throughout the year.

What does this have to do with anything? Have you ever felt like you worked in silos? I know I have. This is incredibly frustrating. Since the groups aren’t communicating, the different groups may not be aligned on what the goal is or they might even have goals that directly conflict with each other. We could likely avoid more of this if we did a better job of talking to each other about what our goals were. If we were more clear, we could align which brings power AND we could plan for how to handle things when the goals are in conflict with each other.

The challenge: How can you find ways to create a shared understanding of your goals to help achieve success?

Bonus- Here are a few goals we have this year. Sharing in case it inspires anyone.

Date nights- Monthly date night to be scheduled the second weekend of the month. If it doesn’t get scheduled it gets lost in the daily grind.
Vacations– at least 1 weeklong trip, and a 2-3 day trip in the fall and spring.
Work more reasonable hours- My personal goal is to shoot more for 40-50 hours per week and limited nights and weekends. Like many of us, I put in a lot of long days and nights during Q4. I realized that my workload wasn’t just rough for my mental health, but had a negative impact on my family’s energy as well. #needforextremeprioritization

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry