Achieve Bigger by Starting Smaller
We all have lofty dreams of making a big change in our lives when things feel like they have stagnated or you realize you are not getting the results you want. We also believe that we can make those changes completely and more quickly than reality will allow. Start with being honest with yourself and clearly defining what it is you want to achieve.
Don’t try to make sweeping changes when you are nowhere near that goal today. If you do not exercise at all right now, do not expect to be suddenly doing sixty minutes of it tomorrow. Or even thirty minutes, for that matter. Even if you accomplish it on day one, what will it really look like on day three or day seven?
Begin with a minimum viable habit.
Not everything has to be accomplished right away. Achieving things of great importance rarely happens in short periods of time. If you begin your journey with a minimum viable habit (MVH), you can use that as a foundation for bigger things in the future. Your MVH is the smallest part of a new habit that establishes you on the right path. It could be setting out your gym clothes the night before to begin an exercising routine. It could be reading a sentence or a paragraph of a long book. Using an MVH may seem too simple, but there are many reasons to begin here. Below are some of the pieces that will help you establish your minimum viable habits.
Start with easy
Something that feels easy at the beginning is okay. You want to enjoy your new habit, which will encourage you to do more of it. I would even recommend jotting down notes when you begin something new about how it makes you feel. If you are ever wondering later about why you are doing something, you can review your notes and allow them to serve as a reminder, even a motivator, of why you are doing what you do.
Avoid thinking that starting small isn’t worth your time. It is, and it will be your recipe for longer-term success. Big things do not happen overnight. There are no shortcuts to meaningful success.
From James Clear – How to Build Habits, Your Strategy Guide
Patience and Practice
Patience and practice – but get back on the horse quickly. If you miss a day, you miss a day. But don’t let yourself miss twice. Quit trying for perfection every time. We all make mistakes, drop the ball, forget to do something, or have a day when we need a break. Acknowledge it, and then move back to where you want to be. No need to give up on something just because you took a day away or messed something up once.
Falling short of a lofty goal creates a negative spiral of discouragement deterring future action. Instead of striding forward, we slide backward. – To Achieve Big Goals, Start with Small HabitsHarvard Business Review
Don’t add too much too soon
Don’t add too quickly. Find a pace you can sustain and nurture over time. Many things ultimately fail because too much gets added too soon. We begin to get comfortable with something and believe we can then add everything else to it. That is usually not true. A slower, more sustainable pace over a longer period of time will yield much better results than adding a lot quickly but then stopping and having to start over.
Have a starter activity that is simple and small. Don’t think about sitting down to write an entire document – start with getting the first sentence captured. Write an outline, not the full recap.
Break things into smaller chunks
Break things into small chunks – instead of one big thing, you could do a couple of smaller things, even if that means the same things in smaller sets. (I.e., instead of 50 of something, do 5 sets of 10). Think of the projects you tend to procrastinate on. Can those be broken into smaller segments that can be worked on over time? Consider performance appraisals. Whether you do these monthly, quarterly, or annually, most companies have leaders prepare and deliver some type of feedback to employees on a regular timetable. If you have five, ten, or even more direct reports, that can be a daunting task. Instead of sitting down to write all of them at once, build a schedule to write one per day for two weeks. Breaking that down further, you could employ the idea above and plan to write a single sentence to start each day. This could turn into a habit of taking two minutes to write one thing about a member of your team each day. Instead of having a long appraisal to write when it is due, you already have all the notes completed.
Anchor to something established
If you are establishing a brand new habit, it may be easiest to connect it to something well-established already. I’ll use a simple example here – if you want to begin flossing your teeth, you can anchor that to your well-established routine of brushing your teeth in the morning or evening. If you always check email when you wake up or get to your office or your store, anchor the next activity to that. It could be to plan one thing for your day ahead. This is a great way to connect actions together and then employ some of the ideas above to help you establish a new set of habits over time.
Taking those lofty dreams we discussed at the beginning and turning them into reality is not impossible. It will just take time. Everything and everyone starts someplace. In an upcoming article, I will debunk the need for perfection from the gate. Start small, establish a healthy routine for yourself, and watch the successes begin to mount.
What small step can you take to build big new successes?
Additional resources:
Tiny Habits – Start Tiny
James Clear – Strategies for Building Habits
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