Setting small goals to achieve big ones is the key to self mastery. Some even go so far as to say don’t set goals at all; instead create processes which lead naturally to where you want to go.
A goal projects into the future the person you want to be, the lifestyle you want to live and so on and so on. It carries with it the idea that you’re not enough right now, in this moment. So be careful with goals because once you achieve one, you’re on to the next. Where do your goals lead you?
If you’re carrying the feeling of never being enough, having enough or doing enough, you may be very goal oriented. But will achieving your goals make you happy, or will you need more goals to really feel fulfilled, happy and content?
So start out with being enough, feeling like you are enough and being happy right now, in this moment.
Setting Small Goals To Achieve Big Goals
In my 20’s I met a stuntman and knew this was what I wanted to pursue. I had a big goal ahead of me – to become a stuntman. To me, a stuntman represented something I thought I wanted: self employed, self assured, confident, purposeful, and so on. It just felt right in every way.
I had a number of tasks to complete which can be summed up briefly as:
- 30 weeks work under an Equity contract
- 6 instructor skills in various activities
I choose to do martial arts, trampolining, SCUBA diving, fencing, swimming and rock climbing. It took me 3-4 years to complete everything. I did it and joined the British Stunt Register in 2002 because I was setting small goals to achieve big ones.
If I had looked at the mountain of things in front of me to do, I would have felt overwhelmed and never even tried. But instead I wrote everything down and made large steps into small achievable goals. Getting a qualification in fencing for example, became “find a fencing school and contact them”. Then turning up for my first lesson. Getting 30 weeks’ work under Equity became finding my first TV extras job – which meant finding an Extras agency. Each large goal was broken down into many small achievable steps.
Setting Small Goals To Achieve Big Goals – Overwhelm
There will be times when you feel overwhelm, whatever you’re attempting. Learn to rest but not to quit. Some days you’ll struggle and others you’ll be flying! But large goals take time so you need to be patient with yourself.
Later on when the stunt work became more of a burden than a joy, I looked to the internet as a means to earn an income. This was another mountain I found to climb! The internet offers a means to earn an income to whoever pursues it for long enough and with enough dedication.
My own personal journey online has had many ups and downs. I’m still on the journey but have learned to celebrate the small wins. When I look to other entrepreneurs who have achieved huge financial success online, I ofter get demoralised because I compare myself to them!
This, I have learned is a mistake. I become disempowered and disillusioned. Thoughts like “I’ll never get to where they are”, “Why bother it never seems to work” and other self defeating expressions surface in my mind. But these kinds of thoughts seldom lead to any inspirational activities!
Small Thoughts Lead To Big Thoughts Too
From a demoralised state of mind to productive and inspirational action is a huge leap. It’s pretty much impossible. So a small step towards a more productive and happy state of mind is always a good thing.
As an affiliate marketer, I sell and promote other people’s products on the internet. I joined an online community who have helped me to earn an income from the internet. But one of the biggest hurdles I’ve found with building my online business is keeping focused on the small actions which I can control and not focusing on the things I don’t have yet!
You can get excited about the first hit you get on your website, for example. You can focus on your first lead. But when your mind is looking for results before you have done the work, you’re creating a mindset of entitlement. Entitlement is wanting things to be different to what they actually are. You want results before you do the work. Here’s a few examples of the mindsets which can work against you with an online business:
- “I should be there by now I’ve been doing this for ages” – Where is “there” and what have you specifically been doing for “ages” – and for how long exactly? Maybe try another strategy?
- “I’ll wait to see if it works first before I commit to it”– another counterproductive mentality which expects results to show without belief and hard work.
- “I can’t in good conscience promote something as a successful model, when I haven’t achieved that success yet.” – I definitely experienced this mind trap. But without promoting something as an affiliate, you can’t make money from it! Belief must be there for success to happen.
Blogging And Big Goals
I started out online thinking I could write a few blog posts and make hundreds of millions from them! While it’s true that a blog post can go viral, and this can lead to many sales, my expectations weren’t a good match for reality. But also, because I expected so much from such little work, I was always disappointed!
As I stuck with it and over time, I realised how my expectations were based on many of the “get rich quick” schemes I had seen over the years. They promised loads of easy money but never delivered. I nearly quit many times just because of the continual disappointments that I had online.
But slowly and surely things got better as I kept going.
Big goals don’t come true without processes which are followed day after day. Unless you put the effort in with an online business, you’ll never see any results. With blogging, results are hard won. It’s far easier and quicker to use paid marketing. However, when I started out online I didn’t have the funds to use paid marketing. So I blogged.
What happens with blogging is nothing for a very long time. Eventually you see your traffic rise steadily and then boom! – If you get to the “boom” stage, you’ve probably been blogging for a very long time. It’s where your traffic goes from a trickle, to a stream to a flood. All of a sudden, you’re making sales and it’s like Christmas! Your sales come in whether you work or not! That’s always been my goal. The hard part is keeping going through the desert when nothing seems to happen.
Daily Processes Instead Of Goals
When your long term goals/desires line up with your daily habits, you know you are on track. Everything feels right and you know you can just keep going, following your daily habits and things will eventually transpire the way you want them to.
Having a set of daily processes you can follow almost without thinking, is key. To get to this point you need to clearly identify your long term plan. Write down what you want you life to look like in every area 10 years from now. Then ask yourself whether your daily actions will take you there. If the answer is no, you need to create some new daily habits and actions steps which will lead you to a better future.
When you align your values, goals and daily action steps, you get to work in a way which is conducive to your daily happiness and your long term goals.
Although a blog post won’t make my online business by itself, as I build more and more content online, my leads and sales come in at a greater pace over time; simply due to the volume of content I have out there in the online world.
Setting Small Goals To Achieve Big Goals – Aligning Who You Are
Have you ever given up on a goal mid way through? Or have you achieved something only to find out that it didn’t give you lasting happiness and fulfilment. Are you chasing goals because there’s a void in your life and you never quite feel fulling aligned with your purpose or reason for being? That’s why it’s a good idea to ask yourself to start with “why”?
Your reason for doing something can often be the reason why you give up, re-direct or stay the course. Once you know your “why”, you can determine whether your path is aligned with your highest values. Knowing your values will save you heaps of time and wasted energy too. Your “why” is the reason you decide on a particular path or journey.
It’s easy to forget that we can achieve pretty much anything we set out minds to. Instead though, most of us get caught up in repeating patterns and habits which don’t lead us to our ideal lives.