YOU ARE MAKING PROGRESS TOWARDS YOUR GOALS — EVEN IF IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE IT
I have so many goals right now that it’s easy for guilt to creep in when I rest.
Last week I spent a whole evening building a “play-by-play” of my weekend so that I could fill every single hour with something I wanted to do. I micromanaged my life — and I hardly followed the “schedule” that I made for myself.
I accomplished some stuff that I wanted to take care of…but I also went to the mall and spent an afternoon at the park. Despite the fact that I still did stuff that I wanted to do — on my schedule or not — I still had a moment of, “Come on, I need to work harder. I was slacking off.”
Seriously? Even when I still took care of so much that I wanted to do? I shook that feeling off — stop it. I’m awesome.
Micromanaging yourself may be a common problem for a lot of ambitious people because it’s our method of controlling our dreams. You know that you get something done when you plan it out, but sometimes, it’s easy to get carried away with planning and thinking, “How can I make sure that I definitely make progress?”
You want proof. You want things to happen. You want your side business to start thriving, your novel to be published, your student loan debt to be paid off.
Sometimes it’s frustrating that our dreams have to grow like trees. We have to plant the seed and water it before it becomes anything. You don’t see progress, you don’t know if anything’s happening — and you feel like you have to work longer, harder, faster for it to sprout.
The thing is that we want the tree to be all grown up.
What are you trying to accomplish in a weekend, an evening, or a day off from work towards your dreams? Are you going to make your trees burst through the ground overnight? Will you be “hustling” so hard that you’ll be able to quit your job the next day? You know that’s not true.
But change does happen, whether we see it or not.
In his book Atomic Habits — which, as self-help books go is one of the better ones in my opinion — James Clear shows a basic “1% rule.” He writes:
“Improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable — sometimes it isn’t even noticeable — but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run….If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.” (page 15)
He’s written about this rule before in his blog as well, showing a graph of the 1% rule in action.
Something to remember about incremental change is that even if you’re not doing something big, you’re still doing it. There is a point to the little things — it’s not the same as “not doing anything at all,” even if it feels like it.
Why spend an hour researching for-lease spaces for your small business? Who cares?
Why write just 500 words?
It’s easy to fall into this mentality. I get it.
Let me give you a helpful exercise. Think of your “big goal” as an umbrella. Write it down: retiring in Italy, getting a new job, becoming a musician, losing 100 pounds. However vague or impossible it feels, write it down. Then, write down a bunch of little things that you can do to make it happen, without any judgment at all. If there’s a sad fairy voice in your head that says, “Don’t even try, this is too life-changing,” just shoo that fairy away and keep writing down ideas. What can be achieved in a month? A day? An afternoon? Think SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Forget whether or not you will do these things. You’re not Atlas holding up the world of your hopes and dreams. Opportunities and people will come into your life to help you make things happen. This is simply a visualization exercise to lift you up if you’re feeling like your ambitions are too far away. You’re on your journey and doing it — you’re making it happen.
Now here’s where the real difference comes into play — every day, you also write down what you’ve accomplished.
Every single day. Do it. Write down what you did at night in a journal. I call them “Reflections.” Always reflect — we have so many to-do lists. What about done lists?
“Really? I wrote 1,000 words of my book? That’s 1,000 more than I had yesterday.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s right! I went to two auditions yesterday! Go me!”
“I applied to that university yesterday — okay! I’m doing it!”
This month I decided to audition for “just” 10 audiobooks in a week — not long after, I got a deal. Believe me, the little things count.
Here’s also the other thing I want to part you with — what’s your life going to look like if you had a million bucks? If you did retire in Italy? If you published that novel? Your life is going to be different — but having gone on a journey to get there, are you going to feel that difference?
There’s a story that stuck with me in Pixar’s Soul:
I heard this story about a fish.
He swims up to an older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call ‘the ocean.’”
“The ocean? the older fish says, “That’s what you’re in right now.”
“This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean!”
You’ll always have dreams and goals — things to reach for. Keep working towards those goals, yes. But also remember — you’re doing it. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you got it.
Now get back to it, one percent at a time.
