Low Goals: 7 Unexpected Advantages
Better to set a small goal and meet it than a grand goal and feel defeated.
I set a low goal for riding my stationary bike, 85 minutes a week. I reach my target If I ride five times a week for 17 minutes. Last week I rode four times but exceeded my goal.
I set a low mark to guarantee success. It helps that I’m maintaining, not riding in a race next month.
Sometimes you should aim low.
7 unexpected advantages of low goals:
#1. Boost confidence.
Novices need more encouragement than pros. Set attainable goals for novices and challenge goals for experts.
Everyone needs to feel they’re making progress. Goals that can’t be reached drain enthusiasm.
#2. Surf the wave.
Momentum is a series of successful endings. Grand objectives choke momentum because they’re achieved slowly.
A series of trivial wins takes you further than attempting one ginormous leap.
Tip: Slice long-term goals into manageable bites.
#3. Defeat procrastination.
You put off writing college papers because they were big and distant. Then you scrambled at the end.
Achievable action today is better than an ambitious aspiration next month.
#4. Develop habits.
Aim low at the beginning. When you return to working-out, just get in the car and drive to the gym.
Read, Mini Habits: Small Habits, Bigger Results, by Stephen Guise.
#5. Lower risk.
Attainable targets are safer than BHAGs.
Better to under-deliver than over-promise.
#6. Enable consistency.
You’re inconsistent when you regularly fall short.
#7. Facilitate learning.
Inexperience finds courage to learn when ambitions are manageable. Tight deadlines create stress, and stress makes us stupid.
When is it better to reach low? Reach high?
However, sometimes trivial targets limit potential and hinder growth. Tomorrow’s post focuses on setting high goals.
All great suggestions! Don’t overwhelme yourself anything is better than nothing!
Begin slow end on a high note, each day just a little tweak, soon they add up!
Believe in you the rest is gravy!
Thanks Tim. Consistent course adjustments make a big difference. Cheers
Great read I will be interested in tomorrows post as I tend to “shoot for mars but get to the moon”
Good one, Dave. “Shoot for Mars.” Someone said aim for the moon, and you’ll end up in the stars. I’m going to mention your quote tomorrow.
Great reminder. I needed to hear the ‘just get in the car and drive to the gym’ as an attainable goal. Maybe once I’m there, I’ll go in and swim! 😉
Exactly. If memory serves, it’s Guise who says, just put on your running shoes. Another author made the “one push-up rule.” Heck, if you’re already down there, maybe you’ll do a few more. 🙂
Okay, I couldn’t resist. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Simple and true. I wonder who said that first? Lao Tzu came up first, but you know how unreliable quote attribution on the Internet is.
That’s a philosophical concept that runs through horse training around breaking training goals up into small steps. You may want to put a saddle on the horse but understanding the process well enough to break it down into the smallest component parts (start with your hand hovering over the horse’s back), let’s you make incremental progress with small wins. And there is less of a chance of causing a rodeo!
Although this post was targeted at personal goals, there’s a lot of wisdom to breaking team or employee or pet goals up into small wins.