We're just now getting into the new year, and this is generally the time where people make grandiose resolutions that mostly end up falling flat. Instead of setting yourself an impossible resolution, I'm going to suggest something a little different: setting a micro-goal for yourself.
I've been listening to a lot of talks involving Ramit Sethi lately, and in one of the interviews I listened to, he brought up an interesting notion he experienced. The notion was that people like that idea of seeing themselves doing any given thing on a regular basis, but the act of doing that thing even once is not appealing to them.
Sethi illustrates this in two ways he personally experienced. The first was around a table of people he was eating dinner with. At this time, each person was to go around the table to share something along the lines of how each person would make themselves better. (My memory is failing me right now, but I think that was the general gist.) One lady mentioned that she would like to cook a meal at home just once a month. Of course, everybody laughed, but the fact of the matter is that she was probably the most honest person around that table, admitting that even cooking at one just once a month is a stretch for her. (Sethi contends that while everybody laughed, they all probably ate out every night, too, and struggled with the same thing.)
The other illustration was an email Sethi received from a follower once that stated she wanted to get to a point where she worked out 3x per week. Sethi replied asking why not shoot for just one time a week? The follower honestly replied, "Why would I do that?" implying it wasn't worth doing at all if she couldn't do the full 3x per week.
The reality is that we want to jump to the end without taking the baby steps in the middle. We're all guilty of this in some fashion or another. Prior to losing the weight, I attempted running a 5K and keeping up with all the other trained runners. I ended up nearly blacking out after about a half mile and walked the rest of the race! After having run every day and slowly increasing my distance / pace, I can now almost lead the pack in a race.
Keeping this in mind, my challenge to us all is to set a micro-goal for ourselves. My micro-goal will be cooking once per week at home. Generally, my wife does most of the cooking, and if she doesn't cook, then we find ourselves eating out. Since we just had a baby and my wife is still recovering from having had a c-section, I figure it will be good to help her out in this way. (Plus, it makes good fodder for my other blog!)
If you want to start working out, set a goal of working out just once a week. If you want to cut back on drinking pop, try only cutting out one day of the week instead of all seven. Your micro-goal can be anything. Find something you are inspired to do and cut it down to its most minimal form, then start from there. Don't get down on yourself for not being perfect on day one. We all have to start somewhere.
I've been listening to a lot of talks involving Ramit Sethi lately, and in one of the interviews I listened to, he brought up an interesting notion he experienced. The notion was that people like that idea of seeing themselves doing any given thing on a regular basis, but the act of doing that thing even once is not appealing to them.
Sethi illustrates this in two ways he personally experienced. The first was around a table of people he was eating dinner with. At this time, each person was to go around the table to share something along the lines of how each person would make themselves better. (My memory is failing me right now, but I think that was the general gist.) One lady mentioned that she would like to cook a meal at home just once a month. Of course, everybody laughed, but the fact of the matter is that she was probably the most honest person around that table, admitting that even cooking at one just once a month is a stretch for her. (Sethi contends that while everybody laughed, they all probably ate out every night, too, and struggled with the same thing.)
The other illustration was an email Sethi received from a follower once that stated she wanted to get to a point where she worked out 3x per week. Sethi replied asking why not shoot for just one time a week? The follower honestly replied, "Why would I do that?" implying it wasn't worth doing at all if she couldn't do the full 3x per week.
The reality is that we want to jump to the end without taking the baby steps in the middle. We're all guilty of this in some fashion or another. Prior to losing the weight, I attempted running a 5K and keeping up with all the other trained runners. I ended up nearly blacking out after about a half mile and walked the rest of the race! After having run every day and slowly increasing my distance / pace, I can now almost lead the pack in a race.
Keeping this in mind, my challenge to us all is to set a micro-goal for ourselves. My micro-goal will be cooking once per week at home. Generally, my wife does most of the cooking, and if she doesn't cook, then we find ourselves eating out. Since we just had a baby and my wife is still recovering from having had a c-section, I figure it will be good to help her out in this way. (Plus, it makes good fodder for my other blog!)
If you want to start working out, set a goal of working out just once a week. If you want to cut back on drinking pop, try only cutting out one day of the week instead of all seven. Your micro-goal can be anything. Find something you are inspired to do and cut it down to its most minimal form, then start from there. Don't get down on yourself for not being perfect on day one. We all have to start somewhere.
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