Wouldn’t it be great to achieve your every goal? It boggles one’s imagination to think of all the goals that we set over time. I’m exploring what works for achieving my goals.

Strategy #1: Activation Energy

It’s simple: Get started, NOW!

In chemistry, we learn about activation energy. It’s the amount of energy required to start a reaction. Think of striking a match. The flame doesn’t start until there’s enough energy in one part of the system for combustion to begin. Then the flame spreads quickly.

Achievable Goals

In his book, “Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results,” author Stephen Guise explains his theory about how to create habits by breaking the desired behavior into atomic steps that assures that each step is ridiculously achievable. This has merit.

One example he uses is setting a goal to exercise. Most of the time, we make the goal to exercise for twenty minutes. Where is one supposed to find twenty whole minutes in a busy schedule? That just seems like way too much because we know it’s not just the twenty minutes of exercise. It is also getting your exercise clothes on, finding that exercise video, fixing some water (must stay hydrated), and then cleaning up afterwards. Our twenty minutes just turned into an hour, easy.

Instead of all that, he suggests setting a goal to do one push-up per day. That’s not too hard. Just one. You can do it anytime during the day. If you’re falling asleep and think, “I didn’t do my push-up.” You can get out of bed and just do it! Simple. You can then go to sleep feeling successful. Once you get in the habit of that one push-up, then move to two. Essentially, he’s developed a thought about how to lower the activation energy. It’s easy to get started. Grab his book and give it a read. Check out his website.

Making It Personal

So I read the book, I continue to check out new posts on Deep Existence, but I haven’t put it into action! So I’m announcing it here. I’m going to take the One Push-Up Challenge and I want you to hold me accountable. Ask me how it’s going. Ask how many push-ups I’m doing in a month!

Let me know how you approach your goals. What motivates you? What works in your life? What helps you take the first step in achieving your goals.

Cheers,
Jack