Keys to Success - Part III
If you’ve been following this series, you’ll hopefully have done some work to strengthen your Faith in yourself and taken the time to identify your Purpose. With those two keys in place, you may be feeling ready to run after your wildest dreams. As you begin your journey (or restart it if that’s where you’re at), let’s talk Discipline.
The type of discipline I’m talking about isn’t about punishment. The Oxford Dictionary defines this type of discipline as “training oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.” It’s easy to get the ball rolling on your dreams to change the world when you are motivated, but unfortunately, motivation is fleeting. If you’re reading this, I’d venture to guess you’ve experienced that a time or two…or too many times to count like me.
When you haven’t developed the habits necessary to continue making progress, it’s all too easy to feel disappointed which makes you more likely to hit pause or simply give up. Motivation is great, don’t get me wrong! But what is needed to go the distance is the discipline to take the actions that will move you forward and do them consistently.
I’m a bit of a broken-record on this subject, but the simplest hack I’ve ever found for building discipline and creating habits in the least stressful way possible is micro-tasks. The Navy Seals coined the term and it’s something they use during hell week. The idea is simple: you start small and commit to doing one little thing every single day. It may sound too good to be true, but it is incredibly effective.
Why? Because the act of marking a task as complete releases dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These are known as the “happy brain chemicals”. Study after study show that these happy brian chemicals not only make you feel good, but the reward you get from releasing them helps to build discipline, create habits, and strengthen motivation.
This little hack is what got me out of my “I don’t know how to make these words into an entire book” rut and helped me get it written in less than a year. The challenge is to:
Think of a daily task that will (over time) move you forward towards your goal
Set a laughably small time commitment for the task - for me, it was to spend 15 minutes a day working on the book.
Use a checklist (on paper, on a spreadsheet, an app, whatever works for you) and mark it as complete each and every day.
Especially if you are someone who has experienced burnout before, making the task laughably small is critical. It seems ridiculous, but the point is to put yourself in a position where you simply can’t come up with an excuse (often, “I don’t have time”) to get out of doing the task. This will set you up for success in being able to complete the task every single day.
The beauty of this hack is that there is no stress involved. Surely you can find 5, 10, or 15 minutes to spend on something that will get you closer to your goal. And bonus, you get all the happy brain chemicals delivered as soon as you mark it as complete. Over time, you’ll find that you happily spend more time on that task or even layer on others, but it’s not something you are forcing yourself to do so you don’t encounter resistance or stress. And voila, you’ve created a progress-oriented habit without stressing yourself out. Give it a try and let me know in the comments how well it works for you!