How To Achieve Big Things in Small Steps (Patreon)

With the new year just a couple of days away, a lot of us are making plans and setting goals for the year ahead - which is lovely - but often when we sit down to make a start on them it all feels a bit overwhelming and we don’t know where to begin!

It’s amazing what you can achieve over time by taking regular, small steps, so if you’ve made an ambitious goal for the year, break it down into the smallest possible steps to take all of the overwhelm out of it.

You can think of it like climbing a mountain: it’s a huge task but when you break it down it’s actually just a series of smaller tasks, like packing a bag, preparing the right gear, and then just taking thousands of literal steps - one at a time.

So think about how you can break down your goal for the year into small tasks.

I’ve made a little worksheet that you can download below to help you with this.

In the space at the top of the mountain, write down your end goal, and make sure that it’s specific and achievable. For me, a goal for the year is to build a pattern design portfolio.

Now, what do you need to do to achieve that goal? What are the big tasks that you need to complete or skills that you need to learn in order to get you there?

For my portfolio, it’ll be making lots of patterns and selecting the best ones.

Keep breaking down the steps that you need to take to get to your end goal into smaller and smaller tasks until it’s something really clear and actionable that you can do in one session.

For me to make lots of patterns, I need to illustrate lots of elements to go into the patterns.

To do that I should collect some inspiration and doodle out some playful sketches of ideas.

I can break it down even further and first decide on some themes and come up with some ideas of what kinds of patterns I’d like to draw and what market they’re for.

At the bottom of the mountain I should now have the very first, actionable steps that I can take to start me on the path to reach my final goal.

Now that I’ve made this plan I don’t have to think about the whole mountain and how much work there is to do to get to the top, I can just focus on one of these actionable tasks at a time and slowly make my way up.

And you don’t have to have this goal for a year, it can be a longer term goal, or it can be something that you’re trying to do in a month - you can set your own timeframe.

Download the worksheet below, and fill it in however you like! 💖