The Gradual Approach to Achieving Goals
How small, manageable steps can help you realize your potential
Read time: 7 minutes
As a coach, I frequently see individuals eager to achieve significant goals but unable to take action. They are fully aware of the importance of their goal, but they struggle with where to begin and often doubt whether any of the potential actions they consider will indeed lead them to success. Closing the gap between their current situation and the desired outcome can seem impossible, causing fear and a sense of paralysis that is hard to overcome.
I also have firsthand experience with this issue. Three years ago, I aspired to be a prolific writer. The problem was I didn’t know what kind of writer I wanted to become, nor did I know the best way to get there. With so many approaches available, I felt stuck and fearful. Also, the thought of writing and publishing publicly was daunting. It felt impossible to take even the smallest step forward.
However, waiting to feel “sure or safe enough” before taking action is counterproductive. The only way to move forward or reduce uncertainty is by taking action. To enhance clarity on your end goal and break down your journey into manageable steps, I recommend a strategy I like to call “The Gradual Approach.” Let me share how you can apply this method effectively.
The Gradual Approach - Steps
Step 1: What’s the goal you want to reach?
First, outline your goal. It could be anything from increasing your daily exercise to improving your leadership abilities.
For instance, my own goal was to become a prolific writer. In the next steps, I'll use my goal to illustrate this approach.
Step 2: Imagine the ideal result if everything went perfectly.
Visualize your ideal outcome creatively, imagining a result that brings great satisfaction and joy. Set aside any doubts or obstacles for now, as they hinder the process. If you can't perfectly imagine the outcome, that’s fine, just do your best. Although having a more inspiring vision is better, any motivating visualization works. This will be our ultimate target.
For my goal, I aim to write articles that engage intelligent readers, rooted in solid scientific research but clear and structured to simplify complex ideas, sparking thought, new perspectives, and 'aha' moments. Writers I admire include Irvin Yalom, Paul Graham, Tim Urban, and Venkatesh Rao.
Step 3: Rate yourself today on a scale of one to ten, where ten represents your goal fully achieved.
Visualize where you stand on a scale and compare yourself to the ideal result you imagined earlier. Don’t worry about being precise in your rating; rate yourself based on your feelings. This step helps you break away from all-or-nothing thinking to gain a nuanced perspective on what you’ve already achieved and what still needs work.
At that time, my rating was a five—more details in the next step.
Step 4: Detail why you chose that grade over a lower one, for example, a five instead of a four.
The goal is to increase your confidence by acknowledging the activities you are doing well, indicating you are already on the path toward your goal. These efforts, often overlooked, reveal your strengths and resources you can leverage for the next step.
I rated myself a five, not a four, because I was an avid reader and knowledgeable about topics I wished to write about, and I enjoyed writing. However, I felt a five was appropriate since I hadn’t published anything publicly.
Step 5: Explain what else you would be doing well if you could increase one point, for example, from five to six.
Picture yourself improving just a bit beyond your current abilities while remembering that more steps lie ahead to reach your ideal. This helps keep your focus on small, achievable changes and keeps the challenge of adopting new behaviors small.
In my case, the clear next step was to start publishing. So, to go from five to six, I could tweet on X once a week. This goal was easily within my reach and resources.
Step 6: Repeat the last step as much as you want.
Each time you repeat the previous step, imagine you are already successful at that level before visualizing one level further. For example, I visualized myself tweeting consistently at level six, then planning weekly LinkedIn posts for longer content at level seven and monthly longer-form blog posts at level eight. I stopped at this level since it was an ambitious yet attainable goal. However, you may choose to map out your steps up to level ten, which is also a viable approach.
The Last Step: List the actions you want to take to reach the next level.
Taking action is the most crucial step for progressing towards your goal. Until now, you have mapped out the levels in your path to better visualize your milestones. Now, outline the actions that will advance you there. I recommend identifying three actions because you may still hesitate to take action when you need to. This will provide flexibility to take the action best suited to your ability and motivation.
My next milestone was to tweet once a week. To achieve this, I listed three actions. I decided to write three tweets weekly but publish only one. Also, I purchased a course on publishing tweets. Lastly, I committed to writing morning pages daily, a practice recommended in “The Artist’s Way.” Even if I could take some of these actions, I would progress towards being a writer.
If the next level you identified still feels daunting, split the steps even further into smaller, manageable parts. For example, if posting a tweet would feel intimidating, I could write it privately to avoid public stress or share it with friends for a safer, controlled feedback experience.
Sustain and Keep it Relevant
Achieving your ultimate goal will not happen overnight, so continue taking action towards your next milestone. As you accomplish each level, celebrate your success and then target the next level. For instance, if you've successfully reached level six, target level seven and outline the required actions.
Keep in mind that there will be times when you feel lost and might not take any action. The plan you've created will act as your compass, helping to realign you with your path. Just list actions again and continue your progress toward the next level.
Finally, as you progress, you'll gain insights into yourself and how well your goal aligns with your true self. As actions provide new insights, you will realize what aspects of your goal still resonate and which do not. Reevaluate your goal every two to three months to keep it relevant. For example, after tweeting and writing LinkedIn posts for some time, I realized I don’t enjoy writing short content, so I focused on writing long blog posts, skipping the middle steps.
Conclusion
The Gradual Approach helps you achieve goals and handle challenges methodically. This method lets you visualize an exciting goal vividly and break down the journey into small, manageable increments. It’s particularly flexible; if you feel lost or have stopped progressing, you can look at your next milestone, list new actions, and pick up where you left off. I believe it can significantly enhance your happiness and success.
Appendix - Scientific Foundations of The Gradual Approach
The Gradual Approach is primarily similar to Solution-Focused Therapy and Motivational Interviewing, but other similar concepts in psychology also inspired me for this approach. Let me mention them briefly:
Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) emphasizes building on existing strengths and focusing on what one can do rather than what one cannot.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a technique in counseling that helps people resolve ambivalent feelings to find the internal motivation they need to change their behavior.
Shaping in Behaviorism involves reinforcing behaviors that are successively closer to the desired behavior, thereby gradually training new behaviors.
Zones of Proximal Development (ZPD) by Lev Vygotsky describes the difference between what learners can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance and encouragement.
Exposure Therapy involves the gradual exposure to a feared object or context without any danger to overcome anxiety.
If you want to learn more about the underlying principles of The Gradual Approach, you can read more about these concepts.
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