Harness the Power of Micro Goals - Episode: 032
Lofty goals don't have to be daunting. In fact, the less intimidating we can make that first step, the more likely we are to achieve our goal. These small, manageable targets may appear insignificant at first, but when applied consistently, they initiate a profound change in our behavior and habits. If you're looking to kickstart a life change or establish a new habit, this episode is your first step. Tune in as we delve into the incredible power of micro goals, and start reimagining your goal-setting approach.
Speaker 1
This is the Durable Dad podcast. I'm your host, tommy Geary. This show is going to give you the skills and tools you need to be a rock solid man for your work, your community and, most importantly, your family. Here we go, episode number 32, durable Dad podcast coming at you. Today we are going to talk I'm just going to dive right in micro goals, and the reason that we're going to talk about micro goals is because I've had to set one for myself lately and clients lately, and it's something that guys are seeing some momentum, some unstuckness happening.
Speaker 1
So micro goals are small goals that make a big impact. The reason that they kind of are applicable to me right now is our home bedtime sleeping through the night. The mornings are all over the place. Right now. We have our six month old daughter, who's now going to sleep early beautiful, lovely, but she wakes up in the middle of the night and our five year old. She likes to go to sleep late and we've tried to help her go to sleep earlier, but it's actually really fun hanging out with her until 10. So she's fun. We like hanging out with her, we like reading, we like drawing and everything. So it's that like 830 to 930 before bed. It's a good time, so we're not pushing it too much. But what does that mean? That means that there's less sleep for Tommy and there's less sleep for Brenda.
Speaker 1
And you know, five months ago I was waking up at 5am really consistently and might have even talked about it on this podcast, and that has slowly gone away. You know, I it got to a point a couple weeks ago where all of us the whole Geary household, was sleeping until 7am and getting up and getting ready to get out of the house altogether, and at first I was like all right, I got to get back in the groove, got to get back in the groove. 5am, let's go. And so I started setting my alarm for 5am again and I would just snooze and then I would turn it off and then I'd wake up at 7am, and that went on for a couple days. And so I kind of thought about it differently when I went back at it and I thought what am I trying to really get out of waking up earlier? And all I wanted was a little slice of time to get ahead of the day before everyone else woke up. And for me what that looks like is about 10 minutes of moving a cold shower and brushing my teeth and starting to get lunch and breakfast ready before everyone wakes up, right? So all right, if that's what I need, how much time do I need? About 30 minutes. So my micro goal became waking up at 6.30. It was only 30 minutes earlier than I was waking up and I did it. I mean, I did it for four days in a row now.
Speaker 1
So the problem that we run into is we have these big goals. We have the big audacious goals that people talk about. Those are nice to have, have a vision, but when we set the bar too high, it can be overwhelming and we do nothing and our mindset becomes I don't know where to start. This is going to be hard, it's going to take a long time. So when we have these big goals, the first step is always the biggest step. If we want to get back into running, the first time we put on those shoes and hit the street is the hardest one.
Speaker 1
So the the solve here is to set micro goals, and for me, that micro goal became the 30 minutes, and that 30 minutes is very approachable, much more approachable than the bigger goal, and my mindset turns into oh, I can do that. I know what to do next. That's easy. We want to get there with a micro goal. We want our mindset to be like that's easy, no problem, I can do that. Then we're going to attack it and we're going to make some change.
Speaker 1
That's the benefit of a micro goal. You get started, you show up. That's half the battle. You prove to yourself that you can achieve the goal. And the cool thing about these micro goals is when you really dig into them. They're usually repeatable. They can be the start of a new habit. And you know if you guys have read atomic habits, any of James Clear's work, atomic habits the definition is that atomic is super, super small but it can make a big impact. And starting with micro goals is the way to go. I said that I'm doing this with clients also.
Speaker 1
Like one guy wants to start working towards a promotion at work. You know there's a lot of steps to getting a promotion and sometimes it can feel daunting and it's a really drawn out process. But you break it down into a micro goal and his was to set up one meeting with a mentor or someone that's in the position that he wanted to get into and setting that goal, going after it. We met the next time and he had two appointments and he had a conversation with his boss about the promotion. The wheels are in motion and that's the benefit of a micro goal. You start making progress, you start building momentum in the right direction.
Speaker 1
Nothing huge, nothing big, but it changes our behavior and it also shows us that we have the capacity to reach our goals, to accomplish things. One place where I see this with a lot of dads is the guys that want to not get as angry and not yell at their kids as much. They want to be more present and connected with their family. And when we've been in a pattern of yelling short at home, quick to be triggered, when we've been there for a while, when we've been quick to react, we're not just going to go from that space to some relaxed Zen master that's always listening, that's always calm. We start small and starting small could look like three minutes of meditation a day. If we start building that presence and calmness outside of the moments, that's going to be really powerful and start moving us towards that Zen dad. But we start small and when we do that, that small goal can lead to maybe a new habit.
Speaker 1
Another James Clear quote you have to start with a version of the habit. That is incredibly easy for you. This is all about starting. This is all about getting movement going and if you're stuck, if you're thinking about trying something new but not doing it, break it down. Set the bar really low. If you want to start running, just set out your running clothes the night before. Don't even worry about putting them on the next day. Just set them out, have them there ready. That could be your micro goal. Micro goals are going to get the momentum going and when you get some action going, it's going to trigger more action. So think about what you're putting off, what's been on the to do list or what have you been wanting to try and you haven't been trying, and break it down. So that's what I got for you guys today. Short episode micro goals. Hope you have an awesome week and I'll catch you next time.
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