Accomplish goals by doing the small things
I have a hard time thinking of the big picture plan. I just can’t wrap my head around goals like, “I’m going to learn how to drive” or “I’m going to have X amount of money by the time I’m Z years old”. Funny right? We have a master plan after all – how do I expect to get there if I cannot plan for the big picture?
Photo Credit: Calvert Cafe & Catering via Flickr
Instead, I like to break my big goals into little goals that fit inside my head. We’ve done this for a few things already this year.
Moving towards ETF investing
We have wanted to switch our mutual funds to ETFs for a while now. We own mutual funds at BMO and while they have performed reasonably well (5-7% return), after the 2.2% MER, it’s not looking so great. So we’ve decided to move our RRSPs to Questrade and invest it in a self directed ETF portfolio. It’s the type of goal I hate though because it involves… paperwork. And Dealing With People. And… paperwork. So we broke it down into smaller actions.
- First, we had to save up a certain amount of money in our RRSPs. We accomplished that last year.
- Next we had to open an account with Questrade – we did that just last week!
- Now, we have to move the money into Questrade from our BMO accounts. I’m not sure how painful this will be, so we broke it down into even smaller steps: (1) Call the bank for an appointment (2) Go to appointment and get paperwork (3) Complete transfer of RRSPs
Eating more healthy foods
This is one of those all encompassing goals that most people will not stick with – after all, what does “eating more healthy” really mean? But taking care of our health is important to us, so like the ETF investing plan, we’ve broken it down into smaller goals that we tackle over time. I’ll note that just by doing #1 and #2, we easily stick to our monthly grocery budget AND eat very well.
- Eat fruit with breakfast and lunch, veggies with lunch and dinner. We’ve been doing this for a few years now.
- Eat only 1-2 servings of meat or protein a day, total. We’ve been doing this for a few years as well.
- Prepare one vegetarian dinner per week – we do this sporadically, so it’s something we’re working on!
- Prepare one fish dinner per week – another item we’re working on!
- Cut down on white rice consumption by mixing it with brown rice – our newest goal!
It would be super hard for me to say, cut out white rice entirely. I love white rice! But it’s completely doable for me to mix in a cup of brown rice into my bag of white rice. I barely even notice the difference and I’m eating slightly healthier without any extra effort. It’s a small action but it gets me closer to my goal than if I had set a big, unrealistic goal.
Those are just two examples of the ways we break down our big picture goals. And when you have small goals, it’s easier to stick with them and not become discouraged when you are not perfect. It took me a good 2 years before I ate fruit regularly. After Brian and I moved in together, it took another year to get him eating fruit regularly. Then it took a year to slowly ramp up our vegetable intake. With our finances, we talked about ETFs for a good 6 months before we finally decided how we wanted to proceed. Then we had to slowly save money and try to figure out where we would hold our ETFs. And so on and so forth.
The point is, it is easy to become discouraged and overwhelmed when faced with a task to accomplish, no matter how much you might want to succeed. Instead of focusing on the end goal, focus on the smaller, less intimidating near term goals. These little goals will get you incrementally closer to where you want to be while (hopefully!) maintaining your confidence and motivation.
33 Responses to “Accomplish goals by doing the small things”
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One step at a time is the answer to solving many large challenges or objectives. If you take something that is seemingly impossible to do, break it up into small steps and then start tackling the steps one at a time you’ll find that the impossible becomes possible. It’s really one of the basic techniques in project management. Break up the project into tasks that can be measured and completed.
We do that at work too actually. We have to keep track of the tasks and hours required to complete each new feature for our project and check them off as they are finished. It can be tedious, but really does keep us on track.
I’m with you on that. When I was younger the popular question at interviews was, “where do you see yourself in five years?” (maybe it still is) At the time I gave some bullshit generic answer, but now I have no idea other than I want to be happy. Yes I have some big picture ideas like being able to travel more freely, maybe own something, have x amount, bla bla bla, but none of that is achievable unless I break it down to what I can do TODAY, then tomorrow, and so on. So make very small goals as well.
Ooooo I hate it when people ask that at job interviews. I’m much more focused on what I can achieve in the next 3-6 months.
That’s quite the fruit platter!
But to comment on your post, there’s only so much you can do in a 24 hour period or a year. Packing yourself and taking on step at a time in critical. But even knowing that I find myself impatient at times.
I get impatient as well. It can be hard to keep motivated when the big picture goal always seems so far away. I like to think that even though they are small steps, it is better than not doing anything at all.
I like how you break it all into small steps. It sure makes it easier to look at as opposed to the overall heaviness that it can hold over us. I would be interested to read more about how your move goes from BMO to Questrade as we would like to go that way as well.
Will do! I left them a message the other day about moving my mutual funds and (no surprise) no phone call back yet. I’m going to get on that again this week.
I like the breaking it down in small steps approach. What I actually like to do is establish my main goal an then breakdown the steps in regards to how I am going to get there. That makes such an overwhelming goal much more manageable and one that you can strive towards more confidently when you accomplish some of the beginning steps towards it.
Definitely! It keeps you on track when the next task is something small and manageable.
I’m very good at seeing the big picture but not as good as figuring out the small steps to get there. I have plans but suck at executing them properly, thankfully my husband is usually my rational and helps me/us along the way with the details
Catherine, that means that in the larger scheme of things, your are the admiral of the fleet (or the CIO of the Company) and your Husband is the captain of the ship!
Jose has a point!
I try to do the same for my big picture goals. Start slow, break down into steps, and give myself a deadline to have it done by.
It’s like we have to bully our brains into doing what’s good for us
My approach is probably a little weird to most people.
I have my big picture of where I want to be but then I *don’t* break it down beyond very broad goals. I just keep doing something each day that will get me closer to completion without mapping out the small steps to get there. I feel this allows me to develop organically as needed and I don’t get bogged down by the little things or overwhelmed by how much there is to do.
This works very well for me as I chip away at things while staying focused on getting the big stuff done and as long as I can stay productive and creative I eventually get where I want to be. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend my approach for most people, I do think many focus too much on the little stuff they can get done quickly and they don’t make as much progress on the bigger picture goals as they should.
Whatever works right?
For me, I *need* to have some goals in mind because otherwise, I get caught up in all the other things that seem to take priority over the course of the day. Even now, I am finding that I need to refocus myself on eating healthy while it’s busy at work.
I think you have to have big goals that are broken down into smaller steps. That way as you accomplish the smaller steps along the way, it feels like you are making progress – and that is encouraging. The progress gives you a little boost of momentum that you can carry forward.
I think it is also important to reward yourself a little along the way and then do a big time reward when you hit the goal at the end. Celebrate accomplishment!
I’m definitely the type of person that needs the reinforcement that comes with small accomplishments. That’s part of the reason I like software development – you always get to see the product continually improving!
Large goals can seem so overwhelming if you don’t break them down into smaller parts. I try to do the same thing when I set out to accomplish something. That way you give yourself little victories and it seems much more attainable.
Motivation really is so important to accomplishing big goals. I know that for myself, without the small accomplishments, I would not manage to achieve my big picture goals.
I’m a big fan of breaking big goals down into smaller, more manageable ones. I do that with my half marathon training so I don’t get too freaked out about it. Instead of looking at the ridiculous amount of running I have to do over the next three months, I just focus on the week at hand, and worry about the rest when it comes.
And especially with training for any athletic event, you really do need to break it down into small chunks, otherwise you’ll probably end up hurting yourself! Good luck with your training!
I like to break goals into small ones too, it gets easier to build momentum, and feel great instead of saying you are only 5% towards your goal, you have reached the 5th step of 100. How the mind works sometimes…
A lot of life is tricking your brain into doing what’s good for it, really.
I have big goals, and then I break them down into smaller, more manageable goals. I set my goals twice each year, first six months, then evaluate, and set or adjust for the next six months.
That’s a good tactic. I don’t have set periods of time for dealing with my goals but that would be a good way to stay on track.
This is something I need to get better at. All to often I make big grand plans and then end up not following through on them because I didn’t know where to start or didn’t break it down into manageable pieces.
I wouldn’t feel too bad – I *still* make big plans that I don’t follow through on, lol. I just try to limit those…
I think it always helps to break big goals into smaller ones. That helped us when we were paying off our credit card debt. Otherwise, the long term goal seems too far away, and you are more likely to give up.
That’s true. Paying off an entire loan is a lot more scary than telling yourself that you’re going to put X amount towards it each month.
I spent most of my life doing what the gurus said: make BIG goals! Well, I made a bunch of big goals which never got off the ground. In the past few years I’ve used the “little steps” strategy and finally have started seeing real results. Thanks for the confirmation!
I’m glad it’s working for you!