Setting Small Goals to Achieve Big Ones

Keep it simple and set yourself up for success

January is a time when many of us make resolutions and set goals. That’s all well and good. A big picture with big goals – a vision for where we want to be in one year, five years or maybe even ten.

But often big goals are challenging and moving toward those goals requires successfully achieving smaller goals along the way. This is where many of us fall short, and some of us give up entirely.

This is where keep it simple for success comes in.

Keep goals small, simple and achievable so that you can feel the momentum of small wins.

Tackling huge goals can set us up for failure. When we don’t feel that we’re making progress, it’s discouraging.

Without any wins along the way, we risk losing steam, and with it, hope.

If we set smaller goals for ourselves, that are reasonable – challenging – but achievable, we give ourselves a chance to celebrate small victories.

Wins keep us in the game, renew our hope, and set us up with the courage to take on the next goal.

The size of the goals can slowly grow as we build skill and confidence until we can ultimately get to where we want to be.

Little steps count – they still carry us forward.

I’m planning to apply this small wins = success formula to planting a garden this spring.

I planted a vegetable garden several years ago. A huge garden. I tilled the soil, put in baby plants along with make-shift fencing.

As an enthusiastic newbie gardener, I went way overboard with the dimensions of the garden and the quantity of plants. I went nuts trying to water and weed a garden that was entirely too large and ambitious for me to take care of. It was a disaster.

Midway through the summer, not being able to keep up, I gave up.

The result was a weed-infested, bug-crawling, rodent-trodden, smelly rotten veggie patch. I salvaged one or two tomatoes at the end of the summer that had managed to grow despite my complete neglect.

For the next few years, I didn’t even consider planting, figuring I was incapable. The sorry failure my first garden had been was stuck in my mind.

Fast forward a few years to now, and I think I want to try again.

I realize now that the problem was I went too big. I had set myself up for failure with an unrealistic and unachievable plan.

This spring, I’m going to keep it simple and set myself up for success.

I’m planning a wee little veggie garden that I can handle – smaller than I might dream of having – but one that I have the time to care for. Each week as I tend to my very few plants and watch them grow – I will celebrate it as a little win.

And if I manage to harvest a single vegetable that can be eaten, hip hip hooray, I’ll eat the win! If all goes well, I may plan a bigger garden the following year.

“Success is a series of small wins.” – Jaime Tardy, eventualmillionaire.com

Whether you are setting goals for a garden, your career, business, health, or for uncluttering your home – whatever the achievement you desire, set small goals to take you to the big ones.

Staying positive and focused creates momentum, which is more important than the size of the wins.

Keep it simple and set yourself up for achieving success!

– Marlene

_________________________________________________

Subscribe below and receive a once-a-week update of the latest Cheers to Chapter Two post & a FREE printable download – 11 Powerfully Positive Midlife Affirmations!