Small wins are progress points on our way to our goal. It gives us motivation to keep on going, often snowballing into success with larger goals. Each of these milestones is part of a larger goal, but they’re chunked down manageable steps. This makes it easier to stick to our plan.
They are building blocks we can use to create a lasting, positive change in our lives. For Admiral William McRaven, making the bed every morning as a Navy SEAL was this kind of habit.
Making our bed correctly set the tone for our day. No matter how hard and physically gruelling the rest of the day may have been, we can be proud of the way it started. And the sense of accomplishment from that one small daily habit carried a positive tone throughout the rest of the day.
We don’t need more all-around discipline to achieve greater success. Rather, to experience success, we need to choose the right habit to adopt to help us reach our goals and then bring just enough discipline to establish it.
If we visit a vending machine daily, perhaps our sugary habit can be replaced by walking to the water fountain or by packing a healthy snack for when the urge hits. In other words, we have to shake things up and train ourselves to act in new and specific ways. And when we do it long enough, it becomes a small win.
When we were a child, our parents had to drill into us the importance of brushing our teeth. And as we got older, we more or less don’t think about brushing in the morning and before we go to bed (hopefully). Each time we brushed as a child, the more brushing became second nature. And now, it just feels weird when we don’t do it.
For our spiritual life, we can start our morning with five minutes of meditation. Find a quiet place where we won’t be disturbed, close our eyes and breathe. If we need help getting into the right headspace, there are several apps that can help guide us through it.
When we can let the thoughts go in and out of our minds without judging them and aim to find stillness at the moment, we’re setting ourselves up to reap the benefits.
For our personal life, each month at the beginning of the month, time block one hour a week to do something for ourselves. Whether it’s a class or a bath, make a calendar appointment with ourselves for something that will make us happy.
Only by writing our own stories, can we live our own lives. We must have control of the driver’s seat in the car of our destiny. The pen that writes our life story must be held in our hand. Our goal is to enhance our mind, develop our body, encourage our heart, and enrich our soul.
We can decide our direction and seek to travel on a road that steadily opens wider horizons and reaches great heights for ourselves and our potential. What may seem to be a sacrifice today, will one day prove to be the best investment of our time and energy that we have ever spent. The skills we develop and the habits we create will make a difference in our life forever.