Start Striving for Big Goals With an Easy Task That Has Huge Rewards
Big goals are discouraging, and it’s common to break them down into smaller goals . But you may still have problems getting started. To overcome this initial fear, choose a task that requires little effort and huge reward.
Our brains tend to see great results and crave instant gratification. Instead of fighting this bias, use it to your advantage. When you break a task into parts, highlight one step that requires little or no effort, but produces meaningful results. As entrepreneur El Kaplan explains:
So instead of learning French, you can choose to send Nicole an email asking for advice on learning French. By achieving this small goal, you will feel more motivated to take the next small step than if you kept berating yourself for lack of language skills.
Kaplan’s full article has other research-backed tips for working with large projects. She also suggests treating yourself to taking this little action as a first step to keep you motivated to keep going.
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