New Year Resolutions may not be for everyone—a Forbes survey says about 40% of Americans take the step., but …
If you are among those who commit to changing things up (whether a New Year's Resolution or not), how do you set yourself up for success in reaching your goals?
Enter Micro Steps!
What are Micro Steps?
Micro Steps are simple steps that are consistent and meaningful, small actions that forward your momentum to your goal.
If you try to eat an elephant whole, I don't need to tell you what will happen.
On the other hand, eating the elephant one bite at a time and throwing in a bit of patience will deliver the results.
A Micro Step Example
Let's use me as an example. My goal is to complete my novel by April 1st. I have 30,000 words written (good job), but I need to produce 50,000 more. Yikes! That's overwhelming, I think, as mental images of climbing the Matterhorn, swimming the Atlantic, and walking across America stream like a motion picture in my head.
Then, I say, "Micro Step It."
I have fourteen weeks to complete my novel as I write this newsletter. So, let's do some fourth-grade math:
- Fourteen weeks divided into 50,000 words = 3,571 words per week.
- Six days per week (I take a day off from writing each week) writing time
- Six days divided into 3,571 words = about 600 words a day.
That's my Micro Step!
Instead of mountains to climb, oceans to swim, or continents to walk, my mental images turn into smaller, doable things—a flight of stairs to climb, a pool lap to swim, and a block to walk.
Three Cool Benefits
The cool thing about micro steps is that they have three benefits that studies show help make achieving a goal a possibility instead of a dream. Micro Steps are:
- Action-oriented (specify what I must do—write 600 words)
- Time-bounded (provide a schedule to develop a habit—write daily)
- Reward oriented (each time I celebrate completing a micro step, the "feel good" chemical dopamine releases in my brain).
Simplify and Do Away with Complexity
Bring some Micro Steps into Your Life.