How Do You Feast on Big Ambitions? Savor Them 1 Bite-Sized Goal at a Time.
By Suchitra Sairam
What’s the #1 thing most people forget when they have big ambitions? Making big goals reality requires achieving a series of many small goals.
And doing them well.
This week, 2 things reminded me of this:
1/ Revisiting James Clear’s Atomic Habits to help me calibrate for several ambitions I’m working toward
2/ A series of 1:1 conferences with my dance students and their parents
James Clear reminded me to 1/ emphasize the systems, deemphasize the goal, and 2/ every action I take is a vote for who I want to become. Results aren’t guaranteed, but they have a MUCH better chance of success with this approach.
This helped me 1/ reduce my hesitation about pursuing some new goals, and 2/ reminded me to break each big thing into smaller chunks for progress.
At the same time…
Several dance students (and their parents expressed) wanting to
1/ advance
2/ perform more
3/ move up class levels
4/ do big solo concerts
… and more.
I want that for them too, and am ready to support. The problem is… I can’t do it for them. The work, effort, actions and focus to date don’t support these wants.
I also can’t reward something that hasn’t been worked for.
We can have wants and dreams. But with no path to get there, no actions or habits to support, it won’t happen.
We get lost in the vision, magic feeling, maybe even the glamor, of achieving the big goal. And forget we must take small, steady action to get there.
I encourage students (and their parents) to focus less on the big goal and ask, “am I creating small goals and taking regular action toward them?” Those habits will carry you right to your big goals’ doorstep.
What does this help us with?
🙌🏽 Wins
🔎 Focus
🔁 Feedback
😊 Confidence
➡️ Momentum
🤪 Avoid Overwhelm
