mini habits smaller habits bigger results

It’s great to dream big, but the way to achieve big is to start small - through micro habits. Instead of striding forward, we slide backward. Falling short of a lofty goal creates a negative spiral of discouragement deterring future action. As high achievers, we’re programmed to “go big or go home” and to “set big hairy audacious goals.” Big goals are more burdensome than they are motivational they require daunting effort to accomplish and sustain in our busy lives. When presented with a problem that requires behavior change, we pounce on it with big goals - only to find ourselves locked into a self-defeating cycle. Like participants in dozens of prior coaching groups I’ve facilitated, these high-potential, high-achieving, and highly stressed professionals first sketched out ambitious plans: the man who never exercised vowed to visit the gym for a minimum of 30 minutes daily the woman who was plugged into email until midnight now planned an hour of pleasure reading before bedtime the man just finishing his second dessert was swearing off sugar entirely. Humbled by the results, their immediate task was to identify a small change of habit to improve their situation. Their uncharacteristic appearance was because of a just-completed assessment that said most of them were in a full-blown crisis trying to manage their time and energy. These were the successful, ambitious participants in a peer coaching group, and they’d been nominated to attend a leadership program by their bosses. They ranged from sheepish to flustered to outright embarrassed.

The six faces around the table displayed expressions not usually seen in a corporate room.

Mini habits smaller habits bigger results