big dreams SMALL STEPS

Ever hear the proverbial retort “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. If you’ve answered yes, which most of you will, you’ll begin to roll your eyes back and yawn at the stale attempts this phrase begets. Yet this overused counsel has held a single truth for centuries.

In conforming with societal pressures, we begin every year as if its a new start, sweeping the slate clean and beginning anew. We set ourselves goals, BIG goals.

“This year I’ll be more confident”; “ This year I’m going to get in shape and gym more”; “This year I’m going to get that promotion”. Then the year ticks around and before we know it we’ve justified why we still in the same place and why “the next year will be our year”.

They have a name for it…“Procrastination”. We learn this word as early as our school days, those dreaded exams and the inability to build up the motivation to actually sit down and be mindful about the task at hand. Yet our solution, Ritalin or Concerta, the one-stop fix shop — “never mind the long-term side effects. We will cross that bridge when it’s time to”…they say…

These kind of solutions are band-aids to a structural problem that has not been addressed for years. We can explore the educational and societal systems that demand performance at the expense of individual’s well-being or we can take a page out of Appreciative Inquiry and focus on solutions and healthier ways to combat this challenge.

CUE: “ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY”

The metaphor offers archaic enlightenment and breaths new hope for true fulfilment. If we had to condense this metaphor to a percentage, the 1% rule would apply. The rule posits, that if an individual commits to doing 1% of any task or activity a day, they will yield the benefits as each percentage compounds and you end up 37 times better than when you started. Simply put, do a little a day, every day and after a year you won’t be sitting with the baggage of yesteryears goals all bundled up in an ice cream tub.

So here’s the recipe for success:

• Plan ahead, give yourself ample time
• Designate 30 minutes a day towards this activity
• Reflect every 3 months on your efforts
• Stay positive and have faith in yourself and the system