Imagine learning how to cook your best meal, say jollof rice. Your first attempt might not come out as planned. The second, slightly better. Maybe a third and fourth attempt might get your there, but one day, you’ll discover you nailed it. What changed? You simply adjusted over time.
That quiet process sits at the heart of cybernetics, a term coined by Dr. Norbert Weiner in the 1940s while studying how torpedoes found their targets. He noticed that those mechanical devices travelled to their destinations by constantly measuring and correcting their trajectories. A series of motion, feedback and adjustments.
Humans are not so different. The moment we set a goal and take a step, there’s a built-in guidance system at work in all of us; but many people struggle with the “feedback” part. Some take it as condemnation, others ignore it entirely.
As we approach a new year with fresh ideas, goals and noble ambitions, this principle becomes even more important. Don’t just set targets, build a habit of listening to your own internal feedback system and the ones around you. Course-correct early and often. That’s not failure, it is guidance.
Keep moving towards the mark, the path may zigzag, but the destination is sure.
