My two youngest children got a little toy, a simple trinket – a little hoop and ball with a ramp leading up to the hoop. It made a little game: Try to roll the ball across the floor so it goes up the ramp and into the hoop. Simple.
My son tried it once, and missed. He then immediately started pulling out other toys – blocks and things – and built an extended barrier-and-ramp leading the hoop such that if he rolled the ball with sufficient force, he couldn’t miss.
This wasn’t cheating. For one, the task was “get the ball in the hoop.” Some may do that with manual dexterity, and others may do it with engineering. But it gets done. And second, it wasn’t cheating because the game is what we make it. Now he and his sister are competing to see who can build the more ridiculous Rube Goldberg contraption that still gets the ball in the hoop.
Decide what you want to do, and then do it the way you decide. Learn this, and life is yours.
The Opportunity Machine 