The Cone of Optimal Behavior

A Quote I’m thinking about

Imagine trying to sprint a marathon. It sounds silly, yet nearly 90% of the population does this with their New Year’s resolutions.

Within 14 days, 88% of people abandon their resolutions.

They do this because they come out of the gate too fast and burn out.

As we transition into a new year and a new season of goals, I’m thinking about this quote from Rich Roll and the book “Superhuman by Habit”.

The book’s primary premise is that new actions require willpower, habits do not, and that the only way to become the best possible version of yourself is to incrementally stack habits.

Example: Starting to read 30 minutes a day when you currently read for 0 minutes a day takes twice the amount of willpower as going from 0 to 15 minutes per day or from 15 minutes per day to 30 minutes per day.

Takeaway: start small, minimize the amount of required willpower, and stack habits that require zero willpower to make you superhuman.

A lesson worth sharing: the Cone of Optimal Behavior

Today I want to introduce you to the Cone of Optimal Behavior.

The Cone of Optimal Behavior is where your actions and behaviors align with your goal. The Cone starts broad, with room for flexibility and mistakes, but it becomes narrower as you get closer to your goal.

When behavior or actions fall outside of the zone of optimal behavior, you are left with a “choice point”. Choice points represent the opportunity to 1) adjust actions & return to the Cone of optimal behavior or 2) abandon your goal altogether.

Why does the Cone of Optimal Behavior matter?

The Cone of Optimal Behavior can be applied to any goal, skill set you’re trying to build, or activity. The Cone of Optimal Behavior simply says that as you get better or progress, the actions required to become better become more precise and the range of optimal behavior shrinks.

However, because we are entering a new year, and most people are setting new goals to achieve, I want to put this in the context of three types of resolutioners: the Plateau Coaster, Cautious Climbers, and Zealous Trailblazers.

1. Plateau Coasters

Plateau Coasters are entering the New Year with the same goals and a new sense of motivation. They feel like they made progress towards their goals over the previous year, but hit a plateau they haven’t been able to push past.

Most likely, they are here:

When you start a new habit or goal, small amounts of positive intervention can make a big difference. Think about building fitness. If you’ve never exercised, doing 2 to 3 workouts a week will have a profound impact on your weight, health, and fitness. However, after you’ve done this for a few weeks your progress plateaus.

When plateaus happen, the easiest way to advance is to look at the actions you’re taking outside the cone of optimal behavior and find ways to reduce them.

Takeaways for Plateau Coasters:

For people who feel like they’ve made progress but plateaued, it is better to focus on removing inhibitors and poor actions than it is trying to build new habits.

• If you’re trying to lose weight, identify what unhealthy habits you have - maybe it’s late-night snacking or not exercising enough.

• If you’re trying to see a new PR in the gym, ask yourself if you're being intentional with your workout sessions or just using it as a social gathering.

• If you’re trying to take your side gig from its infancy and turn it into a profitable business, ask yourself what’s taking your time from investing in it more fully.

Often times we are doing enough good things, we just need to eliminate bad things that rob us of our progress.

2. Cautious Climbers

Cautious climbers are resolutions who are fearful, skeptical, or hesitant to take action on goals and plans. They have goals and dreams for this year but are hesitant to start. Cautious Climbers are typically strategic planners who want to do things well. They look down the road to understand what success will take, but what they see keeps them from starting.

But the reality is that cautious Climbers are really first-time skiers.

When you are just starting, any positive intervention leads to positive outcomes.

Let’s look back at the example from the Plateau Coasters. When Cautious Climbers look to start a new goal, they like to look for the perfect way to do it. They want to find the right workout plan, commit to exercising 4-6 days a week, and clean up their diet all at once.

They do this because they have looked down the road and seen what is required to achieve their goal, but what they fail to realize is those actions aren’t required, and are often unhelpful when just starting.

Takeaways for Plateau Coasters:

Just start. Let yourself build momentum, practice, and learn new things before trying to optimize behavior. Give it 100 days before you try and perfect your practice.

• If you’re trying to get in better shape, just join a gym and go three times a week.

• If you’re trying to become a creator, just start posting content and ideas.

• If you’re trying to learn a new language, start with Duolingo daily.

Just start taking action.

A time will come when you plateau, and when you do, then you can optimize. But when you’re starting out, I promise you’ll achieve your goal much faster if you accept you’ll fall down the hill your first few times doing it.

3. Zealous Trailblazers

Zealous Trailblazers are people who want to get started without setting a plan or vision for what they want to achieve first. They have an idea of what they want, but their eagerness to get started keeps them from setting a strategic plan. These people have no problem working hard and trying new things. They rely on hard work, grit, and dedication to achieve their goals.

The problem:

Many Zealous Trailblazers haven’t aligned on what’s needed to achieve their goals.

Their Cone of Optimal Behavior ends up looking like this:

Unlike Cautious Climbers, who spend too much time focusing on the advanced behaviors required to achieve their goals, Zealous Trailblazers often launch themselves into a project without understanding what they need to do to succeed.

This works in the short term but leads you away from your end goals, not to them.

Takeaways for Zealous Trailblazers:

Your ability to work hard is a huge benefit, but make sure you hone that hard work toward the right goal. Spend time defining what your goal is and what actions are required as you progress toward it.

Your turn: Building your cone of optimal behavior

I heard a definition a few weeks ago that I loved: “Learning is the process of applying new information to change current behaviors”. Today, I want to help you learn this lesson with a quick activity:

Using the image above, take the following steps:

1. Define your goal (what is the trophy you’re chasing).

2. Identify where you are in the cone (are you a beginner or experienced).

3. Write out the behaviors associated with the three stages of the cone.

4. Start taking action and aligning behavior with where you are in the cone.

Example:

1. My goal is to lose weight

2. I’m a Plateau Coaster, I’ve made some progress but remained flat recently

3. beginners should just focus on trying to eat more healthy foods and move more often, people who have plateaued should log food and try and hit specific calorie and macro targets while often abstaining from treats, to be the best, I’d need to prep all my meals, use whole foods, and be very strict with my diet.

4. Because I’m in the middle, I’ll start by logging foods and macros and abstaining from cheat meals more often.

Surface area of accountability

In one of my recent letters, I shared my 5 intentions for 2025, one of them was to “extend the surface area of accountability”. Each week until Hyrox Miami, I’ll be sharing my weight loss & body composition progress. As of today, I’m down to 159.9 from 163.3.

Maybe something of interest?

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