Challenge 13 - Progress Principle
Small wins have transformational power.1
Today's challenge is to use small wins to supercharge your wellbeing.
The impact of the pandemic has many people uncertain about the future. Some days it feels like nothing can go right, that there is an obstacle at every turn, and it's simply just too hard to make progress. Any time spent listening to the news cycles reinforces that not everything is well, and it's easy to adopt a negative outlook.
In times of extraordinary change, the temptation is to go large and make radical plans, but this is where the achievable plans are key. Professor Robert Sutton from Stanford Engineering School suggests, "Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. Our job is to focus on the small wins that enable people to make a little progress every day." 2
Research into the psychology of action and the pursuit of meaningful goals plays a vital role in our psychological wellbeing. Pursuing goals reveals an interesting cycle between progress on our goals and our reported happiness and subjective wellbeing.3 Making progress makes us happier and creates positive emotions. It encourages goal-directed behaviours and helps us complete the tasks, i.e. by making progress on a goal enhances further action and progress.
So how might this virtuous progress loop work?
Identify a goal that you care about or is meaningful to you.
Create a diary breaking the goal into small actionable steps. These may be so small that on their own seem inconsequential.
Celebrate the completion of each micro activity which represents a small win and helps build progress.
Identify areas to accelerate your goals (catalysts) and those that are barriers.
Acknowledge failed activities. When things go bad, as they often do, failure leads to modest disappointments rather than catastrophic setbacks
Observe how these small wins feed into the success of more significant events.
My insight about using the progress principle is evident in this challenge. Each year I try to develop a legacy piece of work to help people enhance their wellbeing. I believe that online challenges, such as The Fresh Start Effect, to be meaningful. Each challenge is designed to foster curiosity during a calendar month, so 20 days of content must be created. The beginning is always daunting and can be a little overwhelming, but breaking down each challenge day into manageable actions ie topic, background research, image selection, words, references, survey & upload all help track progress and celebrate progress. The image above shows the completion of the first 16 challenges. It is denoted by a large 'X', which is satisfying and provides momentum to finish the challenge set.
So how might you progress your wellbeing today with small wins? Tell us here
Reference
1. How to make small wins work for you. 2018 Mehrnaz Bassiri.
2. HBR - Hey Boss - Enough with the Big, Hairy Goals HBR. 2010. Robert I. Sutton
3. Goal Progress and Happiness. How to decrease procrastination and increase happiness. 2008. Psychology today.
Further reading
Read: To Solve Big Problems, Look for Small Wins. 2020. Harvard Business Review.
Watch: Teresa Amabile - The Progress Principle TEDxAtlanta
** Disclaimer – Fresh start effect & 30 Day challenge by Duncan Young. All content and media on the Build Your Ideal Day Website is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
