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

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

Ensuring Our Goals Resonate (1-8-25)

This week we are going to kick off a series focused on goals, and we will start by reflecting on whether or not our goals resonate.

For the past few years, I’ve set a generic goal to get healthier. Getting healthier might be a goal that resonated with other people, but if I’m honest, it was never really motivating and never really connected with me. It was too abstract of an idea. Over the past few months, I’ve lifted weights on a more consistent basis and I’m discovering how much I enjoy that. This year, instead of having a generic goal of getting healthier, I have a goal of building more strength. More specifically, I want to increase the amount of weight I lift on a weekly basis by 15-20% by the end of the year.

I understand that ultimately the idea of building strength is connected to the idea of getting healthier. However, the goal of building strength is so much more motivating to me. I enjoy lifting weights. I love the simplicity of knowing if I’m making progress or not on any given day. I get excited about making improvements whether it’s adding in a few extra reps or increasing how much I’m lifting at any given time. Building strength is a goal that resonates with me. It’s a goal I can rally behind and execute against. I don’t have that same passion for the generic goal of get healthier.

Let’s make some connections. Have you ever had a goal that didn’t resonate with you? Did you pursue that goal with the same zest as you did for something that truly connected with you? Think about common work goals. They include things like, drive sales, hit quota, decrease costs, improve market share, increase customer satisfaction, and deliver more value. These goals aren’t necessarily wrong. At the same time, they may not resonate with us. Maybe the goals are too abstract or maybe they are something that don’t exactly connect to what we value. We have to find a way to translate and create goals that connect with us. I’ve said for years my main goal at work is to deliver magic, which means doing the impossible. That idea may not make sense to anybody, but it gets me out of bed in the morning. It gives me something that I am excited about pursuing and delivering. It gives me fuel that sustains me throughout the year.

The challenge: What are your goals? Do they truly resonate with you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry