Don’t Let Your Big Goals Intimidate You: Break Them Down into Smaller, Meaningful Steps
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Productivity
Sometimes it’s better not to set goals or make big promises. A goals can help you stay on track, but it can also become a mental burden that kills the entire endeavor.
So rather than put a strain on your brain with an enduring thought of a grand end result, such as “Write a book on seabed hunting,” you will feel less pressure every day if you choose to focus on immediate actions that slowly affect the long run: (in the case of writing the aforementioned book) writing your thoughts down, structuring them, drafting, revising, etc.
I’ve just returned from a trip to Europe (which is why we haven’t had any updates, sorry). I highly recommend that you visit Trier if you happen travel around western Germany or Luxembourg in summer—the green hills just make you feel as if you had ventured right into the heart of Hobbiton; and the home of Karl Marx and Emperor Constantine offers a tranquil break from the hustle and bustle of the bigger European cities. I’m still in travel mode, but I’ll stop before this whole post turns into a crappy travel guide. Now let’s switch the topic to discovering your passion.
What we’re talking about is the discovery of an activity (such as a skill) that you have a burning desire to pursue. Not every activity should be sought for the purpose of accumulating riches, but earning a living from something that you love to do and are passionate about can grant you both time and the necessary resources to keep pursuing that passion.
I certainly do. I’m a slow writer, so it usually takes about two hours until I get to hit Publish. But I seem to become more productive when I leave the “office” and work somewhere else. The surroundings just have this magical effect on me. In fact, I’m now writing this post on the living room sofa—resting against a pile of cushions. Sometimes I go out to the porch and work there.
It feels liberating to work on your stuff someplace else once in a while, especially if you’re used to working in the office. It frees from the confines of your workroom. You don’t want to keep glancing at the same paintings and walls every time you try to gather inspiration.
If you are learning a skill right now, stop for a moment. I’d like you to take a moment to analyze what you’re doing and what you’re aiming at in the long run. It often happens that we get excited to learn a new skill but soon forget its underlying purpose. We end up asking ourselves, “Why am I learning this skill?” We lose focus. Whether or not it’s your chief purpose in life, it’s important that you’re clear about what it is that you’re trying to accomplish.
Say you’re learning Spanish—but for what specific reason are you doing it? Well, to learn how to speak Spanish, of course. Good. But if you want to maintain consistency and prevent dropping the endeavor, you need to define your goals more clearly. While learning Spanish for the sake of learning the language definitely sounds rational, as a mental stimulus it is too ambiguous and often fails to provide long-lasting motivation.
I am taking a course on developing graphical user interfaces, and the topics we cover span from HTML and CSS to PHP and MySQL.
Let’s pause for a bit. These abbreviations sound awfully geeky so I’m warning you, but once again, the fundamental principles apply, and these examples can be applied to any other subjects you might be working with. I want you to be able to apply the principles in any field or skill.
Self-Learner is a blog about self-education and self-improvement based lifestyle design. Goal? To become the best "version" of yourself, and feel excited to jump out of your bed every morning.