If you have ever set a massive goal for your online business and then felt completely paralyzed by it, you are not alone. I have been there more times than I can count. The goal sounds great when you write it down — build a six-figure online business, launch a podcast, create a course — but then you sit down to actually work on it and have no idea where to start.
The fix is deceptively simple: break that big goal into small, manageable pieces.
Why Big Goals Stall Out
Big goals fail not because they are too ambitious, but because they are too vague to act on. “Build a profitable niche website” is not something you can sit down and do in a work session. But “research ten potential keywords in the camping niche” is. “Record and edit episode one of my podcast” is. “Write 500 words of a blog post about tent reviews” is.
When you break a big goal into steps you can complete in a single sitting, you eliminate the confusion that kills motivation. You always know what to do next. You open your laptop, look at your list, and get to work on the next small thing.
The Month-by-Month Approach
Here is how I recommend doing it. Take your big goal and ask yourself: what would need to be true one month from now for me to be on track? Write that down. Then ask the same question for the month after that, and the month after that.
For example, if your goal is to earn your first $500 online within six months, your monthly milestones might look like this: Month one, choose a niche and set up a website. Month two, publish ten pieces of content. Month three, start building an email list. Month four, create or find an offer to promote. Month five, optimize and drive traffic. Month six, hit your target.
Each of those monthly goals can be broken down further into weekly tasks. Each weekly task can be broken into daily actions. Before you know it, that overwhelming six-month goal is just a series of small steps you can knock out one evening at a time.
The entrepreneurs I have watched succeed over the past 17 years of podcasting all have this in common. They do not try to eat the elephant in one bite. They break it down, they work the plan, and they adjust as they go. Start small. Build momentum. Let the small wins carry you forward.
So true! Have short-term goals to be able to reach your long-term goal….
Breaking down big goals into little goals is definitely effective.
I read a great book recently called “Switch: How to change things when change is hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It covered this subject brilliantly. They call it ‘shrinking the change’
One example they gave was about a car wash that issued two different punch cards for their loyalty program.
The first card had 8 spots to punch to get a free car wash. The second card they issued had 10 spots to punch, but the first two were already punched. They found that customers with that second card came back more frequently and redeemed their cards sooner.