Win condition refers to the requirements that have to be met in order for you to win the game. It may also refer to the measures you take in order to eventually win the game. I want to borrow this concept from the game world because it feels like a decent thought pattern for achieving the outcomes you want.
After all, part of the whole deal is setting yourself up for success. So it may be worth considering: what is the “win condition” for what you’re trying to achieve?
What are the steps you need to take to get where you want to be?
Goals are often rigid, fixed things. If they’re reasonable, once they’re achieved, they become obsoleted. If they’re unreasonable (see: too ambitious, long timeline), they run a risk of becoming an albatross.
Win-condition, on the other hand, is much more dynamic. In order to achieve a win-condition, a person needs to be strategic. Our time, energy and focus are limited. As a result, it’s a tactful move to consider how we spend our limited precious resources.
Optimizing for the win-condition means you’ve mastered the territory. You know how the breeze affects the grasses and how the ecosystem shifts in response to a hunting predator giving chase. A goal is an endpoint. The destination. Being sure of your win-conditions is your insurance that you’re not going into a dark room, with no idea of what’s going to happen if you miss the goal.
For a person trying to lose fat, a reasonable goal might be to lose 1-2 pounds per week. If we were to look at their win-condition however, we’d realize that consistency and injury prevention are essential. Ultimately, their WC might look like this:
- scheduled rest days
- good sleep hygiene
- incorporating LISS (low-intensity steady state cardio to prevent injury chances)
- regular meal planning
This is strategic! This is tactical!!
The result is not left up to chance but the factors that would contribute to the end goal are considered and assigned priority. If we want to get stronger legs, we don’t just do inclined dumbbell raises. We focus on the correct muscle groups.
For a person who wants to become a YouTuber or make a living from social media, they might have a follower goal. “Reach 100,000 subscribers in 2 years.” But the win-condition is where the win is made. Optimizing for the win-condition in this case may look like this:
- Posting and sharing consistently and at a specific time
- Sharpening focus into niche(s) to become associated with those things
- Replying consistently and engaging with their audience
- Collabs to increase their network and reach
In a way, win-conditions are the next step after deciding where you want to be in the future. They make the controllable things concrete and help ensure that you put your efforts into the most critical activities ahead of time.