What you do everyday matters. Perhaps more than you think.
It matters because every day you are taking (or not taking) teeny tiny steps toward your goal, your ultimate success. It may not feel like you are making much progress some days, but trust me, you are.
The reason comes down to simple math. Little steps taken everyday propel you farther than one giant step because your teeny tiny steps are multiplied by every day you are consistently taking them.
Giant steps, while useful for catching up, rarely spring you farther forward than the momentum that gets build up by taking consistent steps. It’s the reason most big efforts get broken down into smaller steps.
Imagine trying to catch up on saving for your retirement in one giant effort. It’s almost impossible! There’s a reason financial planners recommend starting early and consistently putting money away until you reach your goal.
How to Achieve Success in Teeny Tiny Steps
#1: Clearly Map the Path to Your End-Goal – The trouble with breaking projects down into very small steps is that it’s easy to lose sight of the end goal or get distracted and go off on a tangent that moves you further from your goal. The key is to clearly map out your strategy for how you will step yourself to your end goal one tiny step at a time.
#2: Think Small Steps, Not Giant Leaps – It’s tempting to try to make up for missing steps by taking giant leaps. The exact opposite is true: the giant leaps forward will come from consistent efforts and not from monumental efforts.
#3: Never (EVER) Skip Days – The trick is to continually take steps forward and that means doing something every day that steps you toward your goal, even if that step is very small (the exception being the weekends when you should be enjoying a bit of creative downtime).
#4: Start and Finish in One Step – Just because the steps are small doesn’t mean they aren’t full steps. Half steps don’t count! Get in the habit of starting and finishing in one step – that’s the reason for making them small. Otherwise you are wasting effort by only getting to 80 percent before moving onto to something else.
#5: Whenever Possible, Take Extra Steps – The nice thing about taking teeny tiny steps is it isn’t that much of a stretch to take an extra step or two on a daily basis. Get in the habit of pushing yourself to take that one extra teeny tiny step every day and you’ll reach your goal that much faster.
The added bonus of thinking about your goals in teeny tiny steps is it brings even the loftiest of ambitions down to size. As soon as something feels doable, the chances are even greater than you will actually do them.
