Blog

“Big goals are more burdensome than they are motivational; they require daunting effort to accomplish and sustain in our busy lives. Falling short of a lofty goal creates a negative spiral of discouragement deterring future action. Instead of striding forward, we slide backward. It’s great to dream big, but the way to achieve big is to start small — through micro habits.”

As high-achievers, we often have the “go big or go home” mentality, but setting an unrealistic goal is just as effective as having never set the goal to begin with. A micro goal allows you to build on your skills towards a goal over time, incorporating new activities into habits until success is inevitable. You might feel resistant to start out with a micro goal, as your conditioned to think there is only reward in setting the big goal, but if big goals worked you would have made the change long ago.

So what does a micro goal look like? If your goal is to run a Spartan race in six months but you haven’t worked out in weeks, a micro goal would be setting out your workout clothes and putting them on first thing in the morning. This small shift sets you up for success compared to having the goal that you’ll work out an hour each day but when you wake up you can’t get yourself to the gym. Here are five tips to get you started on creating your own effective micro habits.

1. Identify a “ridiculously small” micro habit.   Aim for small, easily achievable goals. The smaller the better.
2. Piggyback on a daily task. A micro habit should take minimal effort, and performing it at the same time each day ensures it’ll stick.
3. Track your progress. Measuring if the task was achieved or not gives you valuable information into what is working and not working so you can adjust.
4. Hold steady for a long time. Only increase your habit after feeling bored doing it for two weeks, and only increase by 10%.
5. Seek help in holding you accountable. Other people can help hold you accountable, give you feedback on how to improve and increase your chances of success.

Read tips for creating effective micro habits and tackling your big dreams in this article by the Harvard Business Review.