How Small Habits Yield Bigger Results
By: Nishi Patel, Associate Business Consultant
Share your ‘Word of the year.’
That was the first-ever assignment my manager at Veeva gave me. Wanting to make a great first impression, I frantically searched for the perfect Word. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I thoroughly exploited the thesaurus functionality in Word. I chose. Then I rechose. Again, and again.
As I repeatedly went back to the drawing board, I realized that the ‘Word’ I was searching for was, as they say, right under my nose. My Word of the year was “iterate.”
We’ve all had those Sunday night revelations, right? That burst of inspiration that electrifies your body after reading the first page of your never opened self-help book. That wave of motivation after seeing someone’s cliché (but aesthetic) infographic on Instagram.
I’m waking up at 6 A.M. to workout this week! I’m limiting social media usage! I’ll meditate! I’m never eating carbs again!
Inspiration is fleeting. Motivation is unreliable. But iteration and consistency are unyielding. Small but consistent habitual changes have gotten me further personally and professionally than any “aha” moment ever has.
Before being an Associate Business Consultant at Veeva, I worked as an RN at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The two positions could not be more different from one another. When I started working at Veeva, I remember being in an “all or nothing” mentality. Every day, I made a laundry list of assignments to complete or new things to learn. I quickly understood that this was not a feasible way to succeed. Instead, I focused on iteration. After identifying which areas I wanted to grow in, I would consistently leverage small opportunities to practice my skills. For example, to practice excellent deliverable creation, I would focus on creating smaller components and recreating them. Eight months later, I can confidently say that my efforts have compounded, and I’ve significantly progressed.
Not only has this helped me professionally, but I’ve accomplished many personal goals because of iteration. For example, I started to set smaller, more attainable fitness targets. In January, I started jump roping for five minutes (which sounds deceptively easy) as my daily move goal. As I continued to improve and iterate every day, I eventually reached a point where I could continuously jump for forty to forty-five minutes at once! This is just a singular example of how this concept has changed my life.
Iteration requires discipline, and discipline creates progress. It’s been months since I picked that “word of the year,” but I can now confidently say it will be the Word of my lifetime.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Veeva.
