Nataliey Bitature argues you overestimate what you can do in a year but underestimate what's possible in 18 months. She breaks goals into three-month chunks with weekly and daily actions, using examples like reading targets and gym routines. Small wins and consistency beat willpower.
So goal setting, this is something I love to talk about because I think it's so important and I've talked about it before, but I think it's time to get a bit more detailed. People really overestimate what they can do in one year, but really underestimate what you can do in 10 years. So it's about trying to understand your effectiveness in the context of time. So something I recently learned about was 18 month goals, because that's slightly more than a year, but you can break it down into three month chunks and those can be your short term goals. And then that's how you keep checking and improving, seeing what's working, what's not, what's an obstacle in your way, and then plan for that kind of change in your life to take 18 months. Sometimes people are very optimistic, oh, I'll lose all the weight in two weeks, I'll just suffer for now. You won't. And if you do, you'll gain the weight back within a year. But if you try to do something in a more paced out way, firstly, it's not just a goal, it becomes a habit. So then it's an improved part of your life forever. If you say you're going to read 30 books in the next three months, that's a bit ambitious. You're going to have to make drastic life change to make that time and that efficiency and train yourself to do that. But if you say I'm going to read 50 books in the next 18 months, then you can plan, how many books does that mean you need to read per week? How many books does that mean you need to read? Like how many pages per day? So it means how much time? If you add 20 minutes every morning, that's more doable than saying, I'm going to read a book every Friday, just sit and read the whole book, the whole night. It doesn't make sense. So it's important to look at your goals. If you say in 18 months, what is actually achievable? Look at how you are now. If you're someone who has never been to the gym, you can't say, I'm going to start going to the gym every day. That's not realistic and it's not sustainable. So say as someone who has never been to the gym, if I start by going to the gym once a week for the next two weeks, then I increase to twice a week for three months, then I'll increase to three times a week for the next six months, then you can start to build and see that means it's reasonable for me to have lost this many kilos within 18 months. I like the number of 18 months because it's not the pressure of one year, how people like to have huge New Year's resolutions. And that's when gym memberships, by the way, skyrocket worldwide. And by February, everyone is canceling because you've not gone the whole month of January and now you've lost your money. So it doesn't have that one year time frame. And it gives you 18 months, which adds a bit of a cushion because for the first few months, when you're trying to make a change in your life, you're also trying to figure it out. Just because your friend was able to start running every day and got in the habit quickly doesn't mean you will. Or it means you're that person who can pick up something quickly and add it into their life. But you also have to make space for other contexts like your work, your family, your obligations, that the traffic, the amount of time you spend on Saturdays preparing for the week ahead. You have to see what in your life needs to be adjusted and tweaked. How do you add this? See if it's working? What's not working? Do I need to wake up earlier or do I need to sleep later? Do I need to try and read this 30 minutes every day at lunchtime? How can I add it in my day and experiment? Try and see what works in the first three months. Practice and see. I need to add 20 minutes of exercise. Should I go for a zoom class? Should I go for a walk? Should I go to the gym? Should I find a person to go bike riding with every Sunday evening? See what can work for your life and play. Play with it a bit. Experiment and see. Does this work? Does this not work? What's standing in my way? What is supporting it to work? Do I need to pack my gym clothes the day before? Do I need to set the alarm 30 minutes earlier? How can you support yourself in your goal? And then you can take the rest of the time to actually do it in a consistent way, because you need the consistency, remember? Then you can build that consistency and still have time to review. Is it working? It's now been three months. I've done the same thing. Do I feel a difference? Do I see a difference? Is it making my life better and easier? Have I learned something new? And then you can still improve it further. So 18 months gives you a nice big chunk of time to really assess and see and measure consistently. You kind of have to layer all the different things to make an effective change and then it's more effective than having a 10 year goal because if you have a 10 year goal you still have to break it down into what you're going to achieve every year to get to that 10 year goal. So once you get into the habit of setting smart goals that are very specific in these time frames and they're realistic and measurable any of your previous goals you don't even believe that you can achieve the current one so you're setting yourself up for more failure and more anxiety and beating yourself up in your head. You need to be able to give yourself small wins. Say I will go to the gym once this week and when you do be like great I did it clap for yourself and then next week I'll do it again and then the week after I'll go twice and encourage yourself you build up that confidence and it helps with you achieving your goals. Enjoy.
