Author: Shubhadeep B.

The Next Step

  (Photo courtesy Lachlan Hardy)

You have a goal & have put together a plan to achieve it. You even take a few concrete steps. But soon, you start feeling that not enough progress is being made. Maybe its a block. You know what needs to be done, but you just cant seem to get around to doing it. You start feeling frustrated, down & defeated – even if it is a temporary feeling.

What do you do?

Focus on a small next step & do it – however small it may be. By taking the next step, you will be closer to your goal than you were before taking the next step. Taking another step will also provide you the satisfaction of progress, which is critical to build momentum for your journey.

A couple of examples to illustrate this point :

  • Being physically fit is one of my goals. One day at work, the fact that I had missed my exercise routine for a few days started gnawing me. I got off my desk & climbed stairs for about 10 mins. Not only did I get over a temporary lull, but I also got back to my fitness routine the next day.
  • In the middle of the week, do you suddenly get a feeling that you haven’t been spending enough time with your child? Pick up the phone & spend a few minutes chatting with her. Send an I LOVE YOU text message.

Take the next step.

Building Success One Brick At A Time

bricks_1(Photo courtesy Esparta)

Following is an except from a VVS Laxman interview soon after India’s epic test victory over Australia.

Q: Frankly, how confident were you when Ishant Sharma walked in at the fall of the eighth wicket, on 124?
A: Wasn’t thinking too far ahead, wasn’t really thinking of the target, 216… Ishant and I decided to set small goals, decided to look at building the partnership with 10-run bricks.

Focusing on small goals is one of the guiding principles of Personal Kaizen. Smaller goals are a surer path to success to most of us due to two reasons:

  • it makes the overall goal less daunting
  • and thus makes the natural human resistance to change & action that much more surmountable

In this case, India’s daunting task was scoring 93 runs with 2 tail-ender’s support against a spirited Australian pace attack. Laxman broke it down to 10-run bricks that would’ve sounded so much more achievable for either Ishant or Ojha …not to mention Laxman himself.

“The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
– Mark Twain

Every success (wall) is built one small goal (brick) at a time. Focus on that one brick for your action planning & act on it. What is your next brick? 

—–
Related Posts:

Personal Kaizen – Principles

kaizen

The core principles that form the foundation of Personal Kaizen are as follows:

Take Small Steps

  • Big, sudden improvements induces fear resulting in resistance. Small (immediate & meaningful) steps circumvent fear & resistance to increase chances of success.
  • Take small, immediate & easy steps.

Keep Moving Forward

  • Looking to improve all the time – day in and day out.
  • A continuous process of making steady progress.

Long Term Commitment

  • “Once you think you have arrived, you have already started your descent.” There is no end to improvement.
  • Tiny steps over the long-term these add up to great improvements.

Goals & Dreams

This FastCompany excerpt from The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization, explains the difference between goals & dreams (amongst other interesting thoughts). 

“A goal is something measurable, trackable, and is built on analytics. Goals have realistic timelines, are measured by weighing the data, the risks, and the current assets. They are essential to success, but they follow dreams.

A dream is bigger–it has no boundaries, rules, or past history. It’s focused on transforming business as we know it, and approaching from a direction never pursued–or at least never attained. In dreams, we seek the outstanding change–not just within the products we create but in the results those products inspire. For Apple, the dream was to change and dominate the music industry. And the product (in this case, the iPod) enabled that dream to become a reality–shaking the world with results. It wasn’t just the contours of the device. It wasn’t just the technology. It wasn’t the simplicity of buttons. Apple’s dream was so vast that it changed how music was heard, sold, purchased, and consumed. The iPod launched the platform of iTunes. And with such a massive public and music industry shift, the PC world shifted to accommodate as well. This was a dream that defined world-class results.”