How can you turn small actions into big wins?

What is an easy framework for a bias to action?

Life moves fast. It doesn’t wait for you. 

No matter how much time you think you have, I guarantee if you go and ask your grandparents (if you can) they will tell you that their life went by in a flash.

It’s obvious, but it’s hard to re-inforce in your mind that time is finite. Even if you have billions of pounds you can’t buy more time (yet). 

So it’s important to use your time efficiently. 

I know for a fact that my list of to-dos gets longer everyday. 

Things that I “should” do but aren’t urgent so they live at the back of my mind rent free. 

The lessons that I have learnt in recent years is that the biggest rewards lie on the other side of those hardships. 

Simple actionable tasks can create a ripple effect that allows positivity to echo from one measurable outcome to another. 

So how can you implement easy manageable steps to improve your bias to getting work done rather than procrastinating? 

Count The Mental Little Losses vs Small Wins

There are some activities that only YOU can measure. As small as getting out of bed when your alarm goes off and not hitting snooze, or making your bed in the morning. 

No-one else would know if you broke that promise to yourself or not right, so what’s the harm? 

Well it could be massive because it impacts your outlook on the reliability of your own actions. Seems small but let me set the scene. 

Imagine you have a friend, and every time you invite them to lunch or to meet up, they either arrive hugely late or don’t bother to show up at all with no warning. You would stop trusting that friend's word, actions and eventually your relationship would dwindle till it was just the remnants of a once flourishing friendship right?

Well that relationship is the same one you have with yourself. If you tell yourself you are going to do something, actually go and try to achieve it. Otherwise the constant lying will only lead you to have distrust with your own ideas. 

Okay so that brings us to the small wins vs little losses. 

In a 24 hour period, I want you to count them. Whatever your standard of “good”. Set your scene and measure the wins vs the losses. Whatever it may be from getting up on time; making your bed in the morning; actually going for that run or walk;  not drinking that pint; saying “no” or not eating that unhealthy sugar packed cookie over the apple alternative; make sure to count whether you did it or not.

Now overtime try to tick-off all of those checkboxes in the win column. Start taking your word seriously. Start making the changes to trust yourself and you will see that your actions pay incredible dividends.

Write down your to-dos

It’s easy to fall off the bandwagon when you haven’t built one or don’t know how to stay on track. Now alongside the small wins and little losses, start planning out your bigger goals. 

Break it down, be as specific as possible. I’ve written previously about how to implement effective goals here. 

Now I find the easiest fix for staying consistent is to start planning for tomorrow today. 

The basics are that procrastinators often fall back onto what is easy. So if you can’t create easily actionable steps to follow you will ultimately fail before you even start. 

Remember to keep it simple. If the goal is to “learn to code” then start by creating a codeacademy.com account. Then enrol in a course. Easy right? 

Absolutely. 

From there once your brain has latched onto that task I would almost guarantee that you end up doing even more than that. Because often the biggest barrier is starting the task rather than actually doing it. 

The same is true for new gym goers in January. The hardest part is leaving the comfort of your own house, venturing into the dark, and cold to get to the gym to work out. Once you get there, you can kick into gear and start your work out. 

This is not true for everyone. Trust me I know what it’s like being the obese guy in the gym who has absolutely no idea what they are doing. While daunting in its own right, it’s a lot worse being that guy for the rest of your life rather than just for a short period. 

Nothing is permanent. Your circumstances will change. Your life will not always look like it does now. The only factor that induces this change is you! 

The Bottom Line

While it is hard to commit, the choice of doing nothing is still a choice and is often far worse than the alternative.

Creating a bias to action, sobeit even with small little wins throughout your day can cause a snowball effect to help reinforce your mind in believing in yourself. 

Giving you tangible evidence that you are who you think you are and that your actions are reflected in how you approach your life. 

Everything that you have control over directly impacts how the world sees you because it changes based on how you see yourself. 

The simplest way to get out of a rut, and to induce change is to break down your goals and do the things you tell yourself you need to do..

Remember you don’t need to see the whole staircase to take the first step. 

Start today or regret it tomorrow.