I’m a fan of setting micro goals to make big things happen. Let me explain.
Many of us struggle to set realistic New Year’s resolutions and accomplish all of our hopes and plans. Instead, I’m a fan of making tiny little micro goals I might actually achieve.
For instance, if I’m procrastinating on a project I might set my timer with the goal of working for just 10 minutes on the task. Even for the most loathsome, tedious task, ten minutes feels bearable.
Taking that small step reduces my pressure and sometimes gets me going in a good groove to make serious progress.
Let’s say one of your goals is to have nice, strong upper arms. Here’s how you might implement micro goals: Today, see how many pushups or modified pushups you can do and note the number. Then set a goal to do daily pushups in January and simply add one additional pushup every other day.
If your starting number is 15, by the end of January you’ll easily be rocking 30 daily pushups with this gradual approach — and I bet your arms will look great.
Another real-life example: Our pantry feels messy and disorganized after the holidays. It has four shelves. Each week during the month, I’ve set a small goal to clean and tidy one shelf. I think I can manage one measly shelf a week, and at the end of 30 days I’ll have a pantry that makes me smile when I open it.
How About You?
What’s something you’d like to accomplish this month? I invite you to share your goals–big and small–in the Comments section of this post. If you like, include a small micro-step you could take to start heading in the right direction.
P.S. If you’re on Pinterest, here’s a handy pin for this article:
Eliza Cross is an author and food blogger who enjoys helping busy people with easy recipes and tips for gardening, holidays, and home. She is the founder of BENSA Bacon Lovers Society and Happy Simple Living, and the award-winning author of 17 cookbooks.
I learned long ago to “modularize” all my projects to avoid the feeling of never finishing; I turn the bigger task into smaller ones, so if I finish a “module” it doesn’t foul my willingness to return. Same idea, kind of.
The second comment has to do with the 1 shelf-at-a-time pantry project; in my experience, this doesn’t always work because part of the problem is that things are on Shelf A that belong on Shelf C, etc., so you either have to take the Shelf C stuff that was on Shelf A and put it somewhere else until you get around to Shelf C, or you end up doing them all at least partially.
I never knew about your module method, and that’s very cool because you get more things done than anyone I know! Your point about the pantry project is valid, and I’ll have to let you know how it goes once I begin tackling it. I think most of the items are on the right shelf, just disorganized and in need of some serious decluttering. xo