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Debunker

Debunker

Myths, urban legends, frauds, flim flam, general misinformation, sub-optimal worldviews. Debunked.

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Posted byZorkin/debunker-Nov 17, 2016 at 7:00 AM

Set Small Goals to Turn Them Into Habits Before Moving On To Big Goals

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Set Small Goals to Turn Them Into Habits Before Moving On To Big Goals

When you set a goal for yourself, you might be tempted to picture an end result that you want to achieve. While ambitious, that also leaves quite a few steps out. Instead, focus on building habits that get you there.

lifehacker.com
Comments5
  • gabzz103Nov 17, 2016 at 7:07 AM

    This is pretty much how I got really into fitness. I graduated from university, had plenty more free time on my hands and decided to do a few push-ups, some jogs outside and weight lifting reps a few times a week. I tried a few things to see what I liked best and found that I preferred doing physical exercises right after returning home from work.

    I kept that up for a while, slowly increased the number of push-ups, sit-ups, lifts and distances that I'll run. Now I've got bulging muscles on my arms that I'm proud of, definition on my abs and I'm training to run a half marathon next year. I never would've expected that result, but it culminated from turning those few exercises into a habit before I was able to comfortably take it further.

    • ZorkNov 17, 2016 at 9:20 AM

      Thank you for sharing this. I think that's exactly how it should work. Many people may get overwhelmed at the idea of getting fit, but it's really all about the small steps. One foot in front of another.

  • electricitywomanNov 17, 2016 at 11:36 PMΔ

    TL;DR: It's the difference between bullying yourself and encouraging yourself. The amazing thing is that the more realistic your goals are, the more realistic your expectations of yourself are and they're just so much better rewarded when you achieve them. You might not have the glory of aiming for the Olympics, but it teaches you how to be humble and how to be happy with yourself instead of just forcing yourself to ride your own ass into trying to leap when you can't even stand yet.

    It's how you learn a language too. I can forcefully expect myself to write a novel all I like, but that ambition's gonna have to calm the hell down while my brain tries to learn the basic phonetics of the language, some basic diction, the basic grammar and tries its hardest to compose a basic description of my imaginary holidays.

    It's a ladder and you can't just keep jumping for the top rung and hope for the best... Especially after you fall on your ass or smack your ego's teeth against the ladder and lose all motivation. I'd been doing it my whole life and sometimes I still revert back to the habit of it...

    Same for fitness and sports. After a major break up, I picked up basic resistance machine work-outs and could not chest press more than 5kg or run for more than 2 minutes continuously. It's been almost two years of steady increase and smart variation (as soon as I learned of it ha!). I learned how to swim more than one style over summer and the initial goal was just to finish 25m of front crawl without choking. Four months later of that and I'm training with my university's triathlon team and swimming 20x50m front crawl at 10 seconds rest. The rest of the club might all be worlds away from me, but I'm bridging that gap daily by allowing the workouts to function as small goals for me.

    I'm not expecting myself to even survive a standard distance BUCS triathlon yet where before I wouldn't have even considered joining the club if I wasn't sure I could win an Olympic qualification (younger me cracks me up).

    I sure had some wacked out goals that made Mars look practically neighbourly in its distance and my self-talk tone made the near-vacuum of space seem warm and cosy.

    • ZorkNov 18, 2016 at 5:23 AM

      TL;DR: It's the difference between bullying yourself and encouraging yourself...

      Thank you sooo much for sharing your story, this is exactly the sort of thing that people need to appreciate and you've articulated it so well. Those small goals are the difference between a person making steady progress toward a larger goal or getting completely discouraged and quitting.

      • electricitywomanNov 18, 2016 at 7:35 AM

        Exactly! Just because it's small doesn't mean it's not a worthy goal! Thanks for reading (:

Debunker

Debunker

Myths, urban legends, frauds, flim flam, general misinformation, sub-optimal worldviews. Debunked.

4233 members
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