I recently watched the Ted talk by Stephen Duneier called “How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals.” Stephen Duneier has literally cracked the code to achieving goals – he has completed marathons, learned German in a short amount of time, holds a Guinness record for crocheting the largest granny square, learned how to fly a plane, among other insanely ambitious feats. However, he brings his successes back to who he is as a person – someone who cannot focus on anything for more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time, and someone who was a C student throughout his life.
When I was taking Data Structures during my undergraduate career, my professor made a point of showing us a video on Youtube of a man who has literally eaten a plane.
The thing is, anyone can do any of these things. (Though I cant conceive of a reason that would justify eating a plane). The trick is to approach each and every problem in life with small, broken down steps in order to achieve a greater goal.
Whether you want to run a marathon, finish a degree with all A’s, or even practice your writing skills, the key is to break the steps down into the tiniest steps you can conceive of – getting off the couch, closing the Facebook app, opening up your laptop, opening up your word processing app, and just. writing. one. word.
That’s it. That’s the key. Work for a few minutes, and then go do whatever you want. But come back to the goals you’re trying to accomplish by going back to the smallest step necessary to keep moving forward.
Lubna Mirza 