Day 5: Dream Big, Think Small, Act Smaller

If I’m not mistaken (and please correct me if I’m wrong) I think it was Michael Gerber author of “The E-Myth” who said “Dream Big, Think Small, Act Smaller”. Now when I first heard the quote all I heard was “think small”, and in my brain that translated into BE small…meaning, be less than what we are. (In psychology, I did what we call "projecting" – attributing one’s OWN thoughts, feelings, or attitudes upon others). Yes, I honestly thought Mr. Gerber was off his rocker and wondered what the guy was smoking. For a brief moment, I actually thought that I was smarter than a millionaire. HA! Oh, how naïve. The joke was on me. In MY small-mindedness, I totally missed the message. Talk about being humbled. He was actually speaking about goal setting and how to successfully achieve them. Oops…my bad! Sorry Mr. Gerber.

Now seeing as Mr. Gerber might possibly know a thing or two more than me, I figure it might be a good idea to take his sage advice. Wouldn’t you agree? After all, what I was doing up until now obviously wasn’t working for me otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this challenge, right? Right.

So here’s the thing. Yesterday I proposed that I would drink more water. My goal is to drink 3 litres of water per day to get myself rehydrated. This water goal is a crucial element to my next health challenge starting on Monday, so I need to get on it. The problem with this goal is that, although it may seem minor to you, it seems rather big and daunting to me. Seriously, that seems like a lot of water to me!  What I do know, and what Mr. Gerber was saying, is that if I want to successfully achieve anything I need to break it down as far as possible and set incremental goals…take baby steps. So here is what I propose to do. I am going to start with drinking ONE litre of water per day, first thing in the morning, BEFORE I have breakfast. Every second day I will add another litre to be had BEFORE the next meal…until I reach my three litres. (To hold me accountable, feel free to ask me if I actually did follow through on it).  If I can set up a routine habit, I believe I’ll have a much higher rate of success. Today was a good day and I already hit my target. YAY ME!

Day #1 of water goal achieved. Check!