Have you ever sat down in front of a watermelon and thought to yourself, “I can take this thing down in one bite.”
Just you and the watermelon. Seeds or Seedless. One Bite.
Seriously, have you ever thought that?
No…no you have not.
Do you know why?
Because it’s stupid – that’s why.
When you take a look at a watermelon you know right away that you are not going to be able to eat it in one bite. It’s common sense to think, “There is no way that whole thing will fit into my mouth, so there is no way I can take it down in one bite – it’s impossible.”
So, why when it comes to our goals and what we want out of life do we think we can swallow it all down in one bite?
Why do we wake up and expect that all of our problems will be solved overnight with no real work or no real plan?
The trick to everything is that you need to slice up your goals into smaller steps. You can slice the watermelon into 100 different pieces, and finish the whole thing alone if you want – you just can’t do it in one bite.
Instead of setting a goal, and expecting to just achieve the goal, make a plan of how you are going to get there, and then follow through.
Let’s say you have a goal of running a marathon. You are not going to show up at the starting line and just expect to finish without training. Are You?!
The outlook for just showing up and finishing isn’t really good. You would be better served by setting your goal of finishing the marathon a few months earlier, then following some type of marathon program and slowly building your way up to the finish. Set Up Micro Goals for yourself – & check in on those micro-goals as you go.
A micro goal is exactly as the name suggests: a small goal that will ultimately lead to your long-term goal – & they are your keys to success. Navy Seals Use them. Seals learn to focus on one thing at a time, avoiding all distractions. They do that by determining the overall objective, breaking it down into smaller pieces, and repeating it as needed.
Take a small slice every day – get to your goal.
We didn’t just wake up one day and decide we wanted a successful blog that allowed us to spend time with our family, travel the world, and share some of our universal knowledge.
Seriously, we planned, and tried, and planned, and tried, and planned and tried. We failed miserably plenty of times along the way. But we kept on – setting one small goal at a time, and when we reached it, we set another, and another, and another. It’s been years in the making – started all the way at the bottom, but now we here.
You can do anything you want. You don’t have to be a cog in the wheel. You can achieve any goal, you can have the life you want. You are not stuck. Just start setting goals for yourself. Start Small. Set them, then follow up on them. A wise person once said, “Plan your Work, then Work Your Plan.”
That’s how you get there. One slice at a time. One-piece at a time. Don’t stop…just keep going….until you’re just one big Watermelon Man.