Most of us come up with big goals for ourselves.
We want to be wealthier, healthier, wiser, happier, and much more.
Which is awesome.
The issue is that when most people want to do something new to reach those goals, they think in extremes.
“I need to lose weight. So, I’m going to cut my diet to 1,000 calories a day, not eat sugar, and workout for an hour every day….all year.”
I mean I think we can all tell that person is probably going to fail. We’ve all been there.
You do that for two days, hate your life, go back to the normal way of living for a month (or longer) and then find yourself saying the same thing. The cycle continues on and on and you don’t get anywhere.
To me, that’s no way to live. Despite how great that sounds in your head and how great it makes you feel at the time of making that declaration.
Do you want real change? Do you want to actually improve or change your life in the way you desire?
If yes, then it’s important to focus on progress.
Progress is understanding that:
- Habits take a long time to change
- You will fail
Since habits take a while to change most of the time and for most of us, progress is better made by making small improvements. towards the desired end goal
David Goggins highlights this by saying improve your miles ran in a month by 10% each month. 10 miles in January turns to 11 miles in February turns to 12.10 miles in March and so on and so forth.
To do this. you have to:
- Understand your baseline – what is your current behavior?
- Choose an achievable goal that you can maintain for a week.
For example, let’s say you want to stop eating sugar. You believe it leads to weight loss, a healthier life, and a happier life.
The first question to ask is, how often do I eat sugar today?
Let’s say your answer is every day.
Ok, that’s a start! Let’s go!
Now what’s an achievable goal to help get rid of sugar?
I would suggest going one day without sugar. Just one.
Plan on Tuesday as your no sugar day and say you are going to not have sugar on Tuesday for an entire month.
Then fight and claw and do everything you can to not eat sugar on Tuesdays.
Here’s the most exciting part
If you do hit your goal and not eat sugar on a Tuesday for one month, you’re going to unlock something that is a cheat code for progress: MOMENTUM.
You’re going to feel great. You’re going to want to achieve more. After years of lying to yourself, setting huge goals and falling flat on your face in a furious rage, you’re going to have confidence that you are powerful and cant achieve what you put your mind to.
Full of confidence and momentum, you’re going to now set a goal for no sugar on Thursday.
After a month of that, you’re going to pick another day, then another.
Then, after seven months, you’re going to look up and be eating sugar only one or two days. That’s a HUGE improvement.
Sure, 7 months is a slower timeline than the person who says, “I’m done eating sugar for good” and might not sound as good, but after seven months you’ll be the one who is hitting goals and improvt. They’re going to most likely be stuck in the same exact spot.
And honestly, 7 months is nothing compared to living decades more without the weight of sugar on your mind.
Maybe you’ll fail one month and have to restart the next and it takes you one year instead of seven months. That’s still progress and something you should be proud of.
Remember, we’re fighting for lasting fulfillment in life long changes, not short term wins that sound good to our friends.
This is about us.
Think about healthier, not healthy
Another way to view progress is by continue the same behavior but substituting something unhealthy for something healthier. Not healthy but healthier.
For example, let’s say you eat sugar everyday. The sugar you eat is a pint of ice cream every night. In the previous example, you would simply not eat a pint of ice cream on Tuesdays.
The other route you can take it replacing the pint of ice cream with something healthier for a month. Let’s say yogurt and dark chocolate.
That’s wildy healthier than ice cream.
If you can switch to yogurt and dark chocolate every night instead of ice cream, then you are making progress and will gain momentum.
You can even combine the two and say “I will eat ice cream 5 days a week but on Tuesday and Thursday I’ll eat yogurt and dark chocolate.”
Eventually, if you continue to progress and give yourself enough time, think about where you might be after a year.
Two caveats
One.) If you have the ability to stop something cold turkey, please do that. I’m not suggesting by any means to settle and become complacent, I’m merely suggesting a thought process that lead to me eradicating alcohol and helping me with so many other problems.
Two.) If you have a drug problem or an alcohol addiction or you are doing something that can kill you tomorrow, please stop immediately. Get some help and reach out. You can’t afford another day of doing what you’re doing.
But for everyone else that’s trying to make some improvements to one of a few of the following:
- More activity
- Losing weight
- Eating healthier
- Reading more
- Writing more
- Creating more
- Getting off of social media
- Getting away from your phone
- Stopping porn
You should focus on small improvements over time.
So make improvements, gain momentum, and become the person you want to be. Not for anyone else. Do it for yourself.
Potential 