Set Small Goals for Yourself to Turn Into Habits Before Moving on to Big Ones.
When you set a goal for yourself, you may be tempted to imagine the end result you want to achieve. While ambitious, it also leaves many steps behind. Instead, focus on developing the habits that will lead you to it.
As author and productivity podcaster David Kadavi explains, ambitious goals are good, but it’s easy for us to give up when they get difficult. Let’s say you decide to write a book in a year. Well, who could blame you for not doing this? It’s hard to write books! However, if your goal is to write, set yourself a smaller goal for habit formation. For example, write 100 words every day:
It works because you will feel funny if you apologize for not being able to write 100 words. Your ego cannot hide. It will look like a grizzly bear behind a bamboo stem.
But something happens when you start forming your ridiculously easy habit. You start to feel good. When you enjoy it, you start to enjoy it. When you like it, it’s easy to do.
When you miss a lesser, familiar goal, it’s not because it’s a daunting task. This is an ordinary, imperfect day. You can try again tomorrow because it is so easy that there is no reason not to. When you start successfully writing 100 words every day, it becomes normal. So in the end, you can move on to bigger and more ambitious goals.
Develop a habit first | Mission