Win with Micro Goals – plus a free download for VIPs
Winter term: Week 6 of 8
Let me introduce you to the Micro Goal
With each project that passes, we learn what we’d like to do differently on the next one, and one thing that I’ve always been rubbish at, is celebrating the wins.
My mum tells an unbelievably dull story about how I tried and tried and tried to get to the other side of some monkey bars a million times when I was about 6, and when I finally succeeded, I just calmly went on to the next obstacle.
I didn’t punch the air, look round for validation or do a one-girl-mexican-wave, nothing, I just moved on to the next thing.
To be honest not much has changed in the 40+ years that followed, but now I want to run up to that little girl, give her a high-five and force a brownie down her neck.
So this time we’re doing things differently.
We’re going to toast every milestone, cheer for every first, and usher in the era of the Micro Goal! Oooooohhhhh. Please reread that last ‘Oooooohhhhh’ in the voices of the little green men from Toy Story, if you didn’t instinctively do that the first time.
Be micro ambitious
This phrase is stolen from the awesome Tim Minchin’s UWA Address, who firmly believes that instead of setting long term goals, like ‘get 1,000 subscribers’, it’s a far happier way to live by setting Micro Goals, like ‘get 10’.
Not only do you then get to celebrate as each Micro Goal is hit, but it means that you will remain open to new opportunities appearing in your peripheral vision along the way, which can be added as new line items.
Which in turn, could land you on a far more enjoyable path than the original blinkered long-term goal.
And so this is the way I’m moving forward with my Substack projects. 🙌
Update for encouragement
It’s very easy to feel like you’re not making any progress when the ‘big number’ that you’re aiming for seems so distant, but if you pop into this little spreadsheet regularly and just spend some time updating the numbers, you will find little pockets of progress and they will give you a huge boost!
Here are the numbers I’m aiming for in the next year for Substack Type Club:
I have stuffed my office fridge with mini bottles of champagne in preparation for smashing through these Goals, and for the top three there’s a chocolate bar too!
I used the Micro Goal method last year for my other Substack ‘Off on a Tangent’ and it was really fun tracking the progress. 🎉
I just love having a look under the hood of other Substack’s, and so for my VIP Members, and those of you cheeky enough to action the ‘7-day free trial’ (which will only be open until Thursday 27 March), there is a downloadable file so you can populate it with your own Micro Goals and numbers, and also have a nosey at the current progress towards my goals, behind the paywall below.
The downloadable spreadsheet can be opened up in Excel or Numbers, so you can save time reconstructing the whole thing, and then play along with your own mini fridge contents. 👏 🏆