Macro Goals - Micro Process

"All great accomplishments start with the first step"

We've all heard some variation of this a million times since we were kids.

It is one of those sayings that are so fundamentally true and universal, that it can literally be applied to anything. Climbing Everest?....start with the first step! Making a sandwich?....Start with getting the bread out. I imagine most of us understand the meaning behind this concept on an intellectual level and have certainly experienced it first-hand throughout our lives.

However, this simple concept has become a major player in my life thanks to a little personal growth experiment I decided to try out recently. I apologize in advance to my wife and a few friends who have had to endure hearing me talk about this as if it's the second coming of Christ.

I've always been a big dreamer. I still constantly day-dream about all kinds of "shoot for the moon" scenarios because it's great fuel for my creativity and enthusiasm. I am definitely one of those people you'd call a "big idea guy". Now, this term can be both a huge compliment (strength) or an accurate criticism (weakness) in the sense that having a knack for big ideas is a wonderful trait, however, it can also be the reason you never actually put things into motion because you get stuck in "dream" mode.

This dichotomy between big dreams and lack of action creates a very frustrating state of mind as you oscillate between the euphoria of visualizing your future success and the disheartenment of the fact that nothing tangible exists to prove your big ideas. As I got older, I started to find myself more and more disappointed in the fact that all these things I planned on accomplishing were nothing more than words or thoughts floating around in the ether. It felt like I started to become conditioned to believe that my dreams and ideas were not actually possible to achieve because they were so grand and ambitious. This feeling can be crushing and leads to a further loss of motivation as you realize that you have a lot more LOSSES than WINS on your "big idea" vision board.

This is where my "experiment" comes into play. For a long time, I craved having a morning routine that I could do religiously. Throughout the years, I've attempted a number of different routines, some of which lasted a few days and some I could manage to do consistently for a month or two. They all eventually reached a point where something got in the way and I would slowly but surely become less consistent until one day I threw in the towel all together, partly because I let myself get lazy and partly because I did not have a structure in place that accounted for the inevitable "bad days" we are all going to have.

My "aha" moment happened a few months ago. I was/am reading a handful of books (which I highly recommend everyone read) detailing the habits of highly successful people (High Performance Habits, Tools of Titans, The Power of Habit) and I decided to once again give this morning routine thing a go. I jotted down some things I wanted to include in the routine and the things I was hoping to gain from them.

My main objectives were:

1. Gain mindful control of the first 20 minutes after waking up
2. Activate my muscles and increase oxygen saturation
3. Enter peak mental performance state (get laser-focused)

I deliberately made the routine to be under 12 minutes, which I felt was an amount of time I could manage to commit to regardless of circumstances. My thought process was: If I can't dedicate 12 minutes of my day to this, how could I ever expect to accomplish anything great!?

I ended up with the following routine: (I made it insanely detailed as I didn't want to leave any space for me to get side-tracked)

1. Immediately upon waking, drink 12 ounces of water.
2. Put on headphones (My go to is cinematic orchestra. see: Hans Zimmer)
3. Do 10 Sun Salutations (I inhale/exhale here forcefully to expand lung capacity)
4. 10 Forward Bends/Gentle Stretching (If I feel tight, I'll stay here a bit longer)
5. 30 sec Utkatasana or Chair Pose (Great exercise for activating lower back muscle)
6. 3-5 deep breaths while in Downward Dog
7. 15 Body Squats
8. 10 Lunges/Leg
9. 20 Push Ups
10. 60 sec Plank

This was about 3 months ago. What has happened over the course of that time is something that has profoundly affected my thought patterns and behaviors. It has completely transformed the way I approach challenging tasks and big goals....and it kinda happened by accident (I call it mindful luck). Without going too deep into my own mindset, I would like to share my observations of my journey through this and hopefully offer some simple, powerful advice!

By far the most important 2 aspects of this "experiment" have been the following:

1. Make it so easy in the beginning that you'd be embarrassed not to do it.
2. Incrementally increase the difficulty/length and adhere to this structure no matter what.

As I stated earlier, I have attempted to instill some type of routine for many years and have always fallen off the wagon, usually when things got more hectic in life or a circumstance out of my control changed my schedule. My intentions were very clear and strong and my desire was there, however, I made 2 crucial mistakes every time I set out to make this into a "MUST" habit.

The 1st mistake I always made was to go too big too soon. I would get all excited and in my state of enthusiasm would "commit" myself to a routine that would take up about 30 minutes and was quite challenging from the start (e.g. Run 1 mile first thing in the morning, then stretch for 10 min). While it's great to set lofty goals for yourself, the problem is that when you inevitably skip a day or something unexpected comes up, it doesn't feel so bad to say "well, I'd love to do it and I have every intention, but I just can't spend 30 minutes this morning when I am running late to this meeting." The fact that it's so challenging from the onset becomes the downfall, because it doesn't feel so bad to fail shooting for a big goal. So you subconsciously give yourself an "out" by making it tough enough that the guilt isn't so bad and you can justify failing. And once you've failed a couple times, the intention and commitment start to wane as well, until eventually you scrap the project.

The 2nd mistake was not having a specific enough growth structure in place. What I mean by this is that without a clearly defined, realistic structure based on incremental progress, there is no way to stay accountable and informed on your own process. Here's an example that's easy to relate to: "I want to get in better shape" vs. "I want to lose 20 pounds by September" Both of these statements carry the intention of being in better physical condition, however, only the second one has a clearly defined time frame and specific target. Because of this, it has a much better chance of withstanding the obstacles that will come up. But that's still only part of the equation, because it also requires a day-to-day structure that will force accountability. So breaking it down further would increase the likelihood of long-term success even more.

With that example in mind, let's go back to my morning routine. In the first week, I was able to do the routine fairly easy and only missed 1 day, giving me a huge boost in confidence and momentum. This feeling was enough to keep me going to week 2. In week 2, I increased the time of the plank by 30 seconds (I also increased push ups, squats & lunges, but we will only focus on plank) Again, I was fairly successful, only missing 1 day. The most interesting part for me was that when I did miss it, I felt so bad about it because it was so manageable to accomplish, there was simply no good excuse to justify. (This part requires some balance: while the shame did force me to keep going, I also consciously forgave myself for "failing" because I didn't want to get so down on myself that I'd just get depressed and give up)

Slowly but surely, the routine became something I actually looked forward to doing, even if I wasn't feeling that great. The endorphin surge of completing it was enough to get me going even on "bad days". I remembered what it was like to "fall in love with the process". I am now on the 4th month of doing this routine religiously and I've progressed to:

• 45 Push Ups
• 35 Squats
• 30 Lunges
• 5:15 Plank

That's right! I am doing a plank for over 5 minutes every morning. And I don't see myself stopping the progression any time soon. I am not here to brag about my planking prowess nor am I here to sell you on some magical "method" that will make all your dreams come true. My only intention for sharing this experience is to offer a reminder that there are no shortcuts to greatness and that the road is very long and challenging....BUT, when we create a manageable and realistic MICRO-PROCESS even the most audacious MACRO GOALS become achievable. And the cool thing is, it can be applied literally to anything: Want to learn a new language? Aim to learn 1 new word per day for a week. Then 2 words per day, then 3....

When you only have to worry about taking the next incremental step, no goal or ambition is beyond the scope of reach. So just keep taking that next step, putting one foot in front of the other and each day you will get 1 step closer to your ultimate accomplishment!