Last week, we explored the concept of how we can use the three zones of productivity as a framework for assessing whether our goals are attainable. Like the tale of Goldilocks and the three bearz, our goals should ideally fall in the “just-right” difficulty level of the growth zone: challenging, but not impossible.

When I think of my own journeys in the growth zone, a few events come to mind. Foremost among them is my first experience judging a big Competitive event. Shortly after becoming a Level 1 judge, I worked a handful of events with various stores in the Northeast, including a couple GPT’s and a big prerelease for Return to Ravnica in Boston. This experience (and a bit of luck) led me to being accepted as a floor judge for the SCG Open in Providence in 2012.

Going into the Open, I was very focused on testing for Level 2 at some point over the weekend. I had made sure I met all the listed requirements for advancement, but to be honest, I had a very immature perception of what it really meant to be L2. In particular, I placed too much emphasis on the role of L2 as signifying judges who knew Competitive rules and policy, and I felt I “deserved” to be L2 for that reason. This short-sightedness led me to overlook other elements of the level, such as being a leader in my community and the ability to mentor other judges.

Sometimes the best thing someone can do for you is tell you no, and that’s the role that Canadian L3 Gavin Duggan played for me that weekend when he refused to test me for L2. Critically, Gavin helped me realize that L2 isn’t just about checking items off a list (and I would say that’s true about everything in the Judge Program). Even though I had technically met all the requirements for L2, including working with multiple stores, I had not formed deep or meaningful relationships with any of those TO’s. Gavin also pointed out that I should really be working with an L3 mentor from my own region on a regular basis, not just finding someone to test me over the weekend.

I went into SCG Providence expecting to level up, but instead I leveled up my understanding of the Judge Program. It took me a while for me to really understand that, though. At the time, it was an incredibly emotional and disappointing experience. (Although people like to joke about how some judges are robots, I assure you, even the L5 judges are human too.) Gavin’s decision forced me to re-evaluate both my opinion of myself and how I viewed the judge levels, and that process of self-reflection is something I think about often when discussing L2 advancement.

Of course, while self-reflection is great, it doesn’t always feel like you’re actually accomplishing anything by doing it. I was fortunate that Gavin also gave me some specific, practical guidance to implement while I was working through the more abstract process of re-evaluating myself, and that advice was to find a mentor. Although it took me a while to psych myself up to email him, I soon found a fantastic mentor (and friend) in Eric Levine. I ultimately tested for L2 about two months after Providence, with significantly less entitlement and a renewed focus on the importance of mentorship and community building.

As you can tell by how much I’ve written about it, SCG Providence was a very impactful event for me. While I already mentioned that the event stands out in my mind as a prime example of the growth zone, I’ve also come to understand my conversation with Gavin from the perspective of preventing me from entering the danger zone. Each higher level comes with correspondingly greater responsibilities: not just in the ability to certify or advance judges, but also regarding expectations from other judges about your skills and abilities. Being advanced to L2 too quickly could have easily led me into a situation where I would be expected to perform tasks that I wasn’t actually capable of doing — the very definition of the danger zone.

Fortunately, people aren’t static, and the judge program provides many opportunities for growth and advancement. Putting this in the context of goals, it’s important to remember that a goal’s attainability can change over time — and you have the power to make your goals more achievable.

A few months after reaching Level 2, I decided that head judging a Pro Tour Qualifier would be a great growth experience for me. In order to get to that point, I set goals of shadowing the Head Judge for other PTQ’s I was on staff for, of becoming more comfortable making announcements to large crowds, of learning how to perform investigations, and developing many other skills. Eventually, ability combined with opportunity, and I head judged a PTQ for the first time in October 2013. As I recall, the event went pretty smoothly, but I learned a lot about the importance of really “owning” my decisions as Head Judge. I can tell similar stories about other PTQ’s I’ve run (ask me about “PTQ Boom” sometime at an event).

After a while, though, I had learned most of what I could learn from head judging PTQs and similarly-sized events — they had moved into my comfort zone; or, more accurately, my comfort zone had grown to include them. At that point, my focus shifted away from being “the guy” and head judging these tournaments, and into providing opportunities and support for other judges to help them develop their own head judging skills. This dance plays out in similar ways across the judge program: veteran L2’s backing up new L2’s head judging their first PPTQ’s; L3’s supporting L2’s who are team leading on Day 2 of a Grand Prix; experienced judges (of any level!) helping judge candidates run an FNM or a Pre-Release.

One of the reasons judging has captured so much of my time and energy for the past two-and-a-half years is that there’s always something to learn or a skill to improve. As a concrete example, one of the areas I’m striving most to improve right now is team leading at Grands Prix. This is a growth area for me partially because Grands Prix are so large that they require some special skills that are hard to acquire from any other event, and partially because the Grand Prix system itself is continuing to evolve with every event. Both TO’s and judges are introducing new technologies and new solutions for existing challenges (like easily registering for drafts, or efficiently collecting and organizing several thousand decklists), so it’s important to keep up!

Wrapping Up

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored in great detail what it means for a goal to be attainable. We started with asking why attainability is important in the first place, spent some time learning about the three zones of productivity, and closed things out today with some stories about my own experiences across the three zones.

If you take only one thing away from these posts, I want it to be this: Growing as a judge is a lot like building a toolbox. Goals are a powerful tool, and so are the zones of productivity. The only way to become more comfortable with these tools are to practice with them, so use them well, and use them often. With any luck, these articles have helped you better understand not only where you are in the judge program right now, but where you’ve been and where you’re going in the future.

That’s all I have to say about attainability, but don’t worry — I’ll return to the concept of goal-setting in the near future. I’m head judging a PPTQ this weekend, so maybe next week’s post will feature some stories from that event. Either way, the next time we talk about goals, our focus will be examining them from a broader, more holistic point of view.

I’d love to get your thoughts on these posts and how you’ve liked Bearz Repeating overall so far. Just like everything else in judging, I need your feedback to improve! Feel free to leave your comments here, or shoot me an email if you’d prefer.