Think of someone in your life who you would describe as an achiever? Someone who is always working on accomplishing large projects; and usually achieving them as well.
Now think of someone you know who you would describe as a couch potato? Spends most of their days doing the bare minimum and as much, never really attends to do much with their lives.
If you are aware of two people who represent both extremes, you may come to believe that these two individuals could possibly have nothing in common; but you’d be wrong. For one thing which these two people would have in common (as well as everybody else) is time. We all have the same amount of time; 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, etc.
Not only do we have the same amount of time but on a moment by moment basis, can really only carry out the same amount of action. In other words, we can only each do a certain amount of action per second/minute, etc. Whilst some of us may have better concentration and focus than others, within a very limited time frame we can all only do the same amount of action.
Hence the secret to why some people are able to produce such massive changes in their lives whilst others don’t comes down to the fact that those who do make large changes do so by consistently taking a series of small steps until the large change that they desire has come about!
Small Steps Make A Big Change
In a previous article written on the subject (entitled ‘Inch By Inch, Success Is A Clinch But By The Yard, Success Is Hard’) it was mentioned how it is through a series of small action steps how the way to achieve any worthwhile goal in life is to do so via a series of small steps, carried out in the right sequence. By doing such, one stands a good chance of achieving almost anything that they want to in life!
Yet what about mistakes? Surely if one is heading towards a goal, they will make mistakes and as such, not be following the right sequence of small steps; and therefore mess up. Whilst that is correct, in many circumstances, the mistakes can often be undone if one simply goes back a certain point, and changes direction again.
Of course one can think of examples where making even one mistake along the way means that all chances of achieving the goal goes out the window. For instance if you are following a specific chemical formula and accidentally put in the wrong chemicals or at the wrong ratios, then it is unlikely that you will be able to undo the damage and achieve the desired result.
Yet circumstances like these are rare. In most goals that you are pursuing, if you find that you are making a mistake, it is possible (though not always nice) to step back a bit, and head off again, taking the right sequence of small steps until you achieve whatever it is you after.
Factoid
During the time when we were sending rockets to the moon in the late 1960s to mid 1970s, the Apollo rockets (on average) were 97% of the time off-course. In other words, they were heading in the wrong direction and as such, had to fire some rocket booster to get them back in the right direction, before they went slightly off course.
So rather than a straight line to the moon, the Apollo rockets took a zig-zag line to the moon as well as back to Earth.
Yet whatever big change that you wish to bring about in your life; whether that be to lose 20lbs, start a million-dollar company or run a marathon, nothing will happen unless you actually take action to make it happen. Fortunately making things happen in itself doesn’t require huge amounts of action; in fact I would actually advise against trying to implement a large amount of action in order to fulfil a goal.
Instead I would strongly recommend that you undertake a little bit of action everyday towards the attainment of your goal, instead of trying to do big, overarching action.
A Personal Example
For as far back as I can remember, I have always desired to attain the status of Black Belt in a martial art. This is probably due to the fact that I suffer from Dyspraxia, which if you aren’t aware is a neurological disability which affects my hand-eye coordination, etc. Though I have received lots of help over the years with dealing with it, for me to become a Black Belt in a martial art would for me be symbolic to me that I have mastered my Dyspraxia.
So shortly after the London 2012 Olympics, I decided to take some action towards this goal and so joined a martial arts class. In previous years I had tried martial arts before (mainly Jujitsu) but struggled with this martial art, due to the fact that it relies a lot on doing back flips, forward rolls, etc; all the stuff with Dyspraxia I struggle with.
Anyhow, I started by attending a martial arts class based around Taekwondo, and kept going, I kept myself motivated by focusing on attaining the next belt up. Slowly over time, I moved up the belts, practised for and passed the grading, until I finally reached Black Belt (or 1st Dan status).
I say this not to brag but to say how consistently showing up and taking the respective steps, one can achieve their goals. And mistakes were made along the way; I failed my first black belt grading, but a few months later tried again and subsequently passed!
Conclusion
The key to success (well to greatly enhance your chance of being successful) is to first of all decide what it is that you wish to accomplish. Unfortunately no big change can come about until you have decided what it is that you wish to accomplish.
Once you have worked out what it is you want to accomplish, the next thing is to commit yourself to consistently do a little bit at a time towards your goal until such time that you have achieved it. While there maybe things which can speed up your progress (strategies that you could undertake) ultimately you will need to do the required action via a series of small steps to see the change that you wish to come about!
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