Why Do Micro-Goals Create Incredible Growth?
When’s the last time you enjoyed a delicious dinner?
Was it at home, prepared and cooked by a loved one?
Or did you prepare and cook it for just you?
Was it at your favorite local restaurant or far away?
I can guarantee one thing for sure, regardless of who prepared it or where you ate it, you did not devour it in five, or even ten minutes.
My guess is you savored it one bite at a time.
You paused between small spoonful’s and forkful’s.
You took the time to enjoy the great aromas.
WOW! This is really making me hungry right now.How about you?
OK…you’re probably thinking by now, “What the _______ does this have to do with the title of this post: “ Why Do Micro-Goals Create Incredible Growth”.
That is exactly how you enjoyed your awesome dinner.
Wait, what?
You did it without consciously structuring Micro-Goals.
Let me explain.
Your overall goal was to walk away from the table, nourished, delighted, and content.
So how did you accomplish your goal?
Did you stuff your face with as much food as you could?
Did you move the food around on your plate, but never put it in your mouth?
Did you eat a few bites and then decide to stop eating?
My guess is you answered NO to all three questions.
Why? Because your goal was to eat for enjoyment.
It was to enjoy the “food ride”. You created Micro-Goals.
Now, let’s compare that food goal with one most people will set at the beginning of this new year.
It’s the most popular goal we choose.
Yep, you guessed it … Losing Weight.
So, let’s say we want to lose twenty pounds in two months. Seems reasonable.
Here’s what most of us do.
We decide to lose ten pounds each month. We decide to do this through diet and exercise.
After the first two weeks we only lose three pounds. And by the first month we only lose five.
OK, hold that thought for now, we’ll get back to it.
So how does this relate to our food story?
We decided we wanted to enjoy the dinner. So we set Micro-Goals ( one bite at a time ). That way we could enjoy the aroma and taste as we travelled through our meal journey. We remembered to pause and acknowledge how good it was tasting and that with each bite we were getting closer to our goal… nourished, delighted, and content.
Now, if someone or something interrupted or distracted us, we didn’t say to ourselves: “I guess I won’t be able to finish eating now” or “This disturbance is making me rethink if I want to finish and enjoy my delicious dinner.” Of course not.
We paused until the distraction or interruption was gone and then continued eating where we left off.
OK, back to our Weight-Loss Goal. Do we ever get distracted or interrupted on our journey to losing weight? Of course we do. Life happens.
But just as in the dinner story, we didn’t give up. We didn’t put the fork down, and use it as an excuse to walk away from the table, so too in the Weight-Loss story we need to pause and reflect, let the interruption pass, and then get back to enjoying our Weight-Loss journey.
So why do so many of us give up trying to lose weight after only 30 days?
When we eat our delicious dinner, one bite at a time, it is because we want to enjoy the “food journey” and pace ourselves. We know that is the best way to achieve the success we are looking for. And the same goes for our Weight-Loss journey.
But we don’t do that.
Here’s what I am saying… We often set our goals too high too soon.
Remember after the first two weeks we only lost three pounds. And by the first month we only lost five.
We see ourselves as failing our goal because we set our Weight-Loss goal of losing 20 pounds in two months. It was too high too soon. (We sure wouldn’t set our food journey goal to finish eating in five or ten minutes).
What if we set the goal to lose that same amount of weight in five months? That’s four pounds a month. And by the first month when we lose five pounds, we’re already ahead of our target. That will keep us going instead of giving up. That’s the “Micro-Goals Create Incredible Growth” strategy.
Big goals are great. But without creating realistic ones, our Micro-Goals will suffer. We often will run the risk of giving up and giving in because we don’t have the confident feeling that comes with achieving the success of those Micro-Goals.
Either the goal is too big too soon, so all we do is think about it (Push the food around on our plate.) or we try to do it all at once (Stuff our face with too much food.)
Whether we are setting our Big Goals or Micro-Goals for our business or personal life, we need to set them at a level we will enjoy the journey as well as the end result.
Micro-Goals Create Incredible Growth.
Try them out and see for yourself.
Your confidence comes “one bite at a time.”