Give Yourself the Win

If you love goal tracking like me, you know that the hardest part about achieving long-term goals is being consistent about completing the daily tasks and actions required to meet the goal. 

But when do you give yourself that “completed” checkmark on a task? Even personal things like: Read every day. What counts as reading? Is it reading a chapter? For half an hour? Exercise 3X/week. What counts as exercise? Is it 7 minutes in the morning or does it have to be a half hour run?

Today, I think that it’s important to give yourself the win, even if you achieved only a tiny bit of traction: cut yourself some slack, but demand consistency. Expect daily progression from yourself. Small actions compound over time. Do small things toward a big goal, and be happy to complete daily goals, no matter how small.

BTW, I enjoy the feeling of writing out goals with pen and paper, as you can almost feel the neural pathways burning in deeply as your brain tells your hand to write. A big hat tip to Best Self journal, which is the most expensive notebook I’ve ever seen, but is an excellent product and worth every penny.