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Accumulate lots of small victories
Sunday, 4 June 2006
When I was at school, a teacher told me an interesting fact. Well, when I say fact, I'm not sure if it was really true. It's more of an interesting allegory.
He said that the ancient Romans used to build all their roads in a zig-zag pattern rather than a straight line. Even though this meant it took longer to get anywhere, there was a good reason for it.
When generals had to march their soldiers to a certain location, the zig-zag roads were supposed to be better a motivating them to go further. Soldiers would look ahead and see what they thought was the end of the road, so they'd march more quickly. Once they got there, they found it was only a turn, but they'd look ahead and think they'd see the end of the road again, so again they'd march quickly.
The zig-zags in the road let them fool themselves into believing the journey was much shorter than it was. It was a motivational technique.
This is a technique you can use on yourself.
Often, overcoming our natural resistance to getting things done can be the biggest obstacle in achievement. I'm not suggesting you make the journey longer, like the Romans did, but rather to break anything down into a number of small, easily-digestible tasks. That way, rather than being overwhelmed at the long-road in front of you; you can instead concentrate on just reaching the next turn. Don't spend too much time thinking about what lies beyond that.
Many people have big dreams, but get weighed-down by the enormity of what they'll have to do to achieve those dreams. The final goal seems like a far away thing, with nothing but endless effort and obstacles in between.
Breaking the task down and just concentrating on what you have to do next to move towards your dream makes it much easier to convince yourself. Tell yourself: "I don't have to go the whole way there, I'll just complete this small part of the journey and see how I feel after that".
It's rare that you gain nothing, even if you eventually abandon the entire expedition.
Let me give you an example. A couple of years back, I decided to start studying for a Master's degree part-time. I intended to keep working full-time while I undertook the degree. This was a three-year commitment of hard-work - on top of the many other things I already had on my plate.
Instead of becoming scared about what I'd be taking on, I simply thought: "I'll apply for a place on the course, if I don't get it then I'll just forget the whole thing".
So now, my task was just to get together all the paperwork and fill in the application forms. I'd made no firm commitment to myself.
A few months later, I was offered a place on the course. If I accepted, there'd be a big obligation. Instead of stressing about that, I thought: "Well, I'll just start the first semester and if I'm not happy I'll drop out, all I'll lose is a bit of time and money".
The first semester was hard-work, and it was difficult to get used to my new routine. Once again, I just broke the job down into a number of more palatable tasks - getting this assignment done, studying for that exam, and so on.
Even the smaller tasks I broke down. When I was sitting at home and the last thing I felt like doing was university work, I'd say to myself "Okay, I'll just do half an hour and see how I feel after that".
The great thing about this strategy is that hard-work often doesn't seem that bad once it's done. If I commit to doing half-an-hour, I usually find myself doing an hour or two without having to push myself too hard.
Using this technique of accumulating lots of small victories, you can achieve big things in your life. As the cliche goes: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".
You can also use this for doing other difficult things - such as saving. Rather than beating yourself up for not managing to save that $50,000 house deposit, instead commit yourself to save $1000 a month. As you become used to being without the extra money, you'll probably find you can increase this amount.
Lots of small wins can soon add up to really big wins. The only extra ingredient needed is time.
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