Start Small To Achieve Big Goals
This is how I made my morning routine stick (and work)!
After innumerable tries on setting my morning routine, I finally got it sticks and works.
Like many, I have read about the myriad benefits of having a morning routine. I have tried many times for years, and none of these trials bears any fruits. I told myself that it was hard for me to wake up early because I taught night classes or am not a morning person.
Big Dreams, Big Steps, Heading Nowhere
Until I realised that my mistake in setting big goals that required gigantic steps has contributed to my failure to stick to a morning routine.
I set the alarm to ring at 6 am despite being a person who used to wake up at 8.30 am. Without a solid plan, my wish to become a morning person perished.
Dream Big, But Keep Your Steps Small
Reading habit-building books and article help. I applied a different strategy to achieve my goal to wake up earlier. I break it down into smaller sub-goals that I could attain without too much struggle.
Small goal #1: wake up at 8 am and write a page of morning posts. Small goal #2: wake up at 7.30 am and write five pages of the ebook. Small goal #3: wake up at 7 am and read for 21 minutes. Small goal #4: wake up at 6 am, read for 21 minutes, and write on Medium for an hour.
Attaining a goal is not the end. I need to make it stick. It is not a morning routine if I woke up at 6 am one day and 8 am the next. So I still need a plan to make leaving bed in the morning a breeze.
Next, I focus on sleep quality, and I list things that hurt my sleep quality. I found that afternoon coffee break come up to the top of the list. I tackle my addiction using the same strategy — taking small steps to reduce caffeine intake.
Now my morning routine starts at 6 am daily. My productivity at work and writing has been increased as I felt like my morning routine gave me extra two hours.
Key Takeaways
- You could always set big goals, but make sure you keep your step small, especially initially.
- Set actionable small goals like “wake up at 8 am and exercise for 5 minutes”, not “wake up at 8 am and workout”. You are more likely to act on a clearly outlined and easy task than a vague and seemingly hard one.
- Repeat these small steps daily to make them stick. Once they become habits, you can slowly leap farther and attain your ultimate goal sooner.