BIG goals are not conquered in heroic bursts. They are reached by taking the right action consistently. Small actions seem insignificant in the moment. But repeated daily, they become identity, skill, confidence, and results.
Streaks
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day”. ~ Jim Rohn
Taking the right action can be approached in different ways.
One way is to select your desired outcome, then bear down with the willpower, and gut it out till you achieve your goal. And as we have learned, that seldom works! Willpower is useful — but limited. It fades with fatigue, stress, and too many decisions. If your plan depends entirely on feeling strong every day, it will eventually fail.
An easier way, and one that almost guarantees success, is to select small steps that lead in your desired direction. As we’ve discussed before, make them “stupid small”, so small that you’d be embarrassed not to do them. Here are a couple of examples from an ordinary day in the life of . . . me.
AM workout: After I get up and take my cold shower (a discussion for another time), I have a morning activity routine. I do a Sun Salutation, plank, crunches, leg lifts, and some stretches. My normal morning routine takes about 15–20 minutes. But on busy or travel days, I have an 8-minute version. It keeps the streak alive.
PM journal: I use the same principle with my evening journal. On full days, I complete the whole process. On tired days, I use a condensed version. Progress continues.
One other example. I have a BIG Goal: to create Practice Guides for each of the eighteen Excelerated Life™ practices. (You can see a sample here.) I’ve developed a process for creating the Practice Guides (my “learning goal”). The process contains the steps for creating the guide. These steps can then be broken down into daily tasks.
My daily minimum step is simple: open the current Practice Guide document. That alone counts. Most days I do more, but this tiny action preserves momentum. And momentum preserved is progress protected.
“The Magic of Momentum”
“[T]he whole of our lives can turn on the hinges of such minuscule events as they accumulate over time.” ~ Martha Beck
Our BIG goals are not achieved through giant strides but through small, even tiny, steps taken day by day. Each tiny step builds momentum. And as momentum builds, it becomes easier to take larger steps.
In The Magic of Momentum, Stephen Guise presents a number of principles that guide momentum. One of these principles is: everything you do ripples exponentially. “Every action”, Stephen says, “will affect your next several actions.”
Tiny positive actions pull future behavior forward. Tiny neglect does the opposite.
Do you see how tiny steps can have a big impact? Taking the right action can make all the difference.
Taking the Right Action
“[T]he ability to develop any skill as swiftly as possible, with the least amount of effort, and even to experience inner peace and joy in the process, is in fact a skill itself, and one that requires constant practice to become an effortless part of who we are.” ~ Thomas M. Sterner
Obviously, if we are to take the right action to achieve our objective, we need to know what the next right action is. Otherwise, we risk moving even further away from our desired destination.
One thought to keep in mind as we define the right actions for our goals comes from Thomas M. Sterner’s The Practicing Mind. Focusing on the product (that is, the outcome) is a misuse of the goal. Focusing on process is using the goal as a rudder.
Here are factors that can help us focus on the process and develop the steps to reach our BIG goals.
- Define your objective clearly.
- Identify what you must learn.
- Set a measurable performance goal.
- Reduce action steps to tiny daily moves.
- Reflect, refine, repeat.
Suppose you want to learn a foreign language. How could you define and develop your BIG goal?
First, define success: conversation, reading, comprehension, or fluency. Then identify skills to learn, create tiny daily steps, and review progress regularly.
Put Ideas Into Action
Are you currently working toward a BIG goal?
If not, why not take the opportunity to create one now?
Take one current goal and ask:
What exactly do I want?
What must I learn?
What measurable result am I pursuing?
What tiny step can I take on my worst day?
What can I improve as I go?
Taking the Right Action – Reprise
Success is rarely dramatic while it is being built. It looks like short workouts. Five hundred words. One sales call. Opening the document. Keeping the streak alive.
Small actions seem insignificant in the moment. But repeated daily, they become identity, skill, confidence, and results.
BIG goals are not conquered in heroic bursts. They are reached by people who quietly keep showing up.
This week, choose one goal that matters to you. Reduce it to one tiny daily action, so small you cannot reasonably avoid it. Then do it for seven straight days.
Protect the streak. Respect the process. Trust the compounding. Because success often begins with something that looks too small to matter. But it’s how you embrace your Excelerated Life™!
What one tiny daily step could most improve your life if you repeated it consistently?
How could you start taking that step today?
Share your ideas by leaving a post below.
Excelerated Movement™ — taking the right action in pursuit of your goals — is one practice for creating your Excelerated Life™, a life of flourishing and well-being, and a life of meaning, purpose, and service.
Read more about the Excelerated Life™.
Resources:
Guise, Stephen. Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. CreateSpace Publishing. 2013.
Guise, Stephen. The Magic of Momentum. Selective Entertainment, LLC. 2022.
Miller, MAPP, Caroline Adams. Big Goals. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2025.
Sterner, Thomas M. The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2005, 2012.
This blog post includes research information and suggestions provided by ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI. The content was generated with AI assistance and is intended to provide information and guidance. Please note that the suggestions are not official statements from OpenAI. To learn more about ChatGPT and its capabilities, you can visit the OpenAI website.
(Please NOTE: The material in this document is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice in medical, psychological, legal, or financial matters. The purpose of this article is to educate and inspire. Following the techniques, suggestions, or strategies presented does not guarantee success.)