Clarissa's Blog

Actually, no, don’t think small. Think tiny. Think microscopic, minuscule, teensy-weensy. Don’t set huge goals because they will just overwhelm you, and you’ll never achieve anything in the end.

Example: don’t tell yourself “I need to finally finish the book and submit it to a publisher.” That’s a bad, horrible way of formulating your goal. People who say this to themselves never manage to finish and submit the book. Forget this huge goal and instead tell yourself, “I need to add 5 sentences to paragraph 3 of the introduction to the second chapter on the subject of X.” Now, this is a good, manageable goal. 

Instead of making yourself feel like a loser who still hasn’t been able to finish the book (lose the weight, pay down the credit card debt, complete a DIY project, remodel the kitchen, wrap the gifts, and invent the cure for cancer), you need to inhabit the image of somebody who is successful at what they plan to do. One completed tiny goal is a million times better than a list of 10 enormous goals that you never reached.

If there are big goals that keep hanging over you, this simply means that you haven’t broken them up into tiny enough parts.