Eat Your Elephant: A Bite-Sized Way to Achieve Audacious Goals

I hate floor tile. I’m more of a wood floor and carpet person. What I hate even more is cleaning tile. It had been on my to do list for a long time. I finally broke down and started the task by telling myself all I had to clean was the master bathroom floor and then I could quit.

To make the time more productive and enjoyable, I set up my laptop on the bathroom counter and searched YouTube for “best TED Talks”. For those unfamiliar with TED Talks, they are short teachings (about 15 minutes) on a wide variety of interesting subjects by experts in their field. I picked one at random and started scrubbing.

As I listened to “How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals“ by Stephen Duneier, I was surprised to realize that I was actually using the technique the speaker was encouraging. I was breaking up a big task or goal into small, manageable pieces and then just taking the first step. It’s along the lines of the old adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” But this talk adds the tips of identifying your bites and utilizing otherwise wasted time in your day to take them.

Rather than reading my attempt at further explanation, give yourself a gift and take 18 minutes to be entertained, enlightened and inspired by listening to this highly motivating talk yourself.

By the way, after I finished cleaning the master bathroom floor, I knocked out the entryway and downstairs bath floors as well! While floor cleaning is hardly an audacious goal, learning to apply this technique on smaller tasks gives me confidence in using it for bigger ones. Listen to this short TED Talk on a manageable way to achieve your audacious goals and take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

(Originally posted February 17, 2018)