When picking a goal to work towards to be successful, it is OK to choose something small.
Sometimes when we listen to success coaches they talk about that the world will give us what we ask for, so if we ask for something small or large, that is what we will receive. Hearing this we sometimes think that we must only ask for large things like, having US$1 million, or being a celebrity, or losing 50% of our current weight. These are all nice goals.
I remember hearing a story about Jim Carrey that before he was hugely successful, he wrote himself a check for a large amount, something like US$1 million and would look at it regularly as motivation until he was able to cash it. Obviously, whatever success formula he employed, it worked for him. This technique is a great idea and I encourage everyone to do it and see if it works for you.
I think we should also be open to the possibility of small goals. Think of it again in terms of a physical workout. If you were only able to life 1kg, would you continue to do a workout with that 1k even if your ultimate goal is to life 100kg? I sure hope so. You can set a near term goal to lift 2kg and leave the larger goal of 100kg to just be in the background. It doesn't have to be the primary focus.
By allowing our self to achieve small goals, we can then celebrate them. I am again reminded of the story I heard in the movie "Touching the Void". It is a great, true life story, about how a mountain climber fell off the mountain, broke his leg and was left for dead. This climber was an experienced climber and did not have food or water as they had just planned to do a quick climb. He knew 100% that he was dead, there was no question about that fact. What he decided was though, despite the fact that he was going to die, there was no reason he had to die where he was lying.
He figured that he was able to move maybe 1 or 2 meters and he would play a game of giving himself 5 or 10 minutes to move that distance. After he moved that small distance, he would check his watch and either celebrate or curse that he can do better. After his celebration/disappointment, he would then start again and think something like "Well, I'm not dead, yet, so there's no reason to die here, let's go another 1 or 2 meters in a certain time limit of 5 or 10 minutes."
Despite the fact that he expected to die on the mountain, using this technique of just looking at small goals and celebrating them, or reevaluating how he can do better next time if he didn't quite achieve the goal, he was able to save himself.
I like this mentality. It's OK if we don't have a 100% positive mental attitude in our ability to achieve our overall large goal. Let's just set some small, quick goals that will move us ever so small towards this large goal. It's OK if we don't every expect this to really allow us to achieve the large goal, but let's just do it as a game, because really we all will die some day.
What do you think?
Sometimes when we listen to success coaches they talk about that the world will give us what we ask for, so if we ask for something small or large, that is what we will receive. Hearing this we sometimes think that we must only ask for large things like, having US$1 million, or being a celebrity, or losing 50% of our current weight. These are all nice goals.
I remember hearing a story about Jim Carrey that before he was hugely successful, he wrote himself a check for a large amount, something like US$1 million and would look at it regularly as motivation until he was able to cash it. Obviously, whatever success formula he employed, it worked for him. This technique is a great idea and I encourage everyone to do it and see if it works for you.
I think we should also be open to the possibility of small goals. Think of it again in terms of a physical workout. If you were only able to life 1kg, would you continue to do a workout with that 1k even if your ultimate goal is to life 100kg? I sure hope so. You can set a near term goal to lift 2kg and leave the larger goal of 100kg to just be in the background. It doesn't have to be the primary focus.
By allowing our self to achieve small goals, we can then celebrate them. I am again reminded of the story I heard in the movie "Touching the Void". It is a great, true life story, about how a mountain climber fell off the mountain, broke his leg and was left for dead. This climber was an experienced climber and did not have food or water as they had just planned to do a quick climb. He knew 100% that he was dead, there was no question about that fact. What he decided was though, despite the fact that he was going to die, there was no reason he had to die where he was lying.
He figured that he was able to move maybe 1 or 2 meters and he would play a game of giving himself 5 or 10 minutes to move that distance. After he moved that small distance, he would check his watch and either celebrate or curse that he can do better. After his celebration/disappointment, he would then start again and think something like "Well, I'm not dead, yet, so there's no reason to die here, let's go another 1 or 2 meters in a certain time limit of 5 or 10 minutes."
Despite the fact that he expected to die on the mountain, using this technique of just looking at small goals and celebrating them, or reevaluating how he can do better next time if he didn't quite achieve the goal, he was able to save himself.
I like this mentality. It's OK if we don't have a 100% positive mental attitude in our ability to achieve our overall large goal. Let's just set some small, quick goals that will move us ever so small towards this large goal. It's OK if we don't every expect this to really allow us to achieve the large goal, but let's just do it as a game, because really we all will die some day.
What do you think?
RSS Feed