(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi everybody, welcome back to Rainbows are Circles. Happy New Year. I hope it's off to a good start for you. I am really excited about our episode today because I wanted to share a tip, a tool that has been really helpful for me as I've been working towards goals in my life. And as the new year begins, usually people have a lot of new goals and resolutions, and we can often start off really strong and be all gung ho.
And then as January and February trickle on, we often start to lose steam. So I wanted to share a tip with you to help you keep working towards whatever goal or resolution that you have created for yourself, so that you don't just fall off and not achieve the things that you are really wanting to achieve this year. So let's start off just by thinking about what you want to create this year. So do you have any goals? Do you have any new year's resolutions? If you do, wonderful.
Pick one and get it really clear in your mind. If you haven't created any for yourself and you want to, take a moment to pause this and just maybe grab a pen and a piece of paper and just journal right about what you would like for yourself this year. What do you want this year to hold for you? Are there any goals that you're working towards? Are there any things that you're wanting to create, manifest, projects, trips that you want to take?
Maybe you want to start eating healthier or going to bed earlier or exercising more. Maybe you want to earn more money. Maybe you want a new job. What are some things that you want to create this year? And then choose one of those things. Okay. So if you need to pause this, go ahead and pause and then come back. Okay. So to give you an example, in case you're having trouble, like coming up with something that you want to create this year, I'm going to give you two examples from my life.
One really kind of simple and one, a little bit more complicated, and that's going to take a little more time and effort. So the simple one is I want to start playing piano again. I was at my brother's for the holiday and he has this piano that he wants his daughter to start playing when she gets a little bit older. And I hadn't played piano in years since I was a kid. And I started just playing really simple songs and I just realized how much I missed music and playing.
And so when I came back home, I found a really affordable electric keyboard on Facebook marketplace. I got it for like 60 bucks and I've been playing just like maybe five to 10 minutes every day. And it's been really, really fun just to reconnect with it and just to have music in my life again, just to actually be playing music in my life again. And I'm really like beginner level. I remember a little bit from when I was young, but I'm really starting at the beginning.
And so I wanted to make the process fun and I wanted to make sure that I actually stick with it because oftentimes I'll start something and I'll be really excited in the beginning. And then after a few weeks, I'm like, eh, I'm over this and I don't want to do it anymore. So in order to not let that happen, I chose a song that is pretty, it's challenging for me, but it's doable. And it's a song that I really like. It's called Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. It's a beautiful song.
And, um, I've just printed out the first page of the music. I haven't even printed out the whole song yet because it's, it's a lot for me to learn. And it, it was a little overwhelming the first time I tried to play it, but I've decided to just break it down into like five, 10 minutes of practice every day, every morning before I even go have coffee, I sit down at the piano. I like stretch my little fingers. I take a few breaths and then I just like plunk away at the piano.
And I'm in my second week now. And I have to say like the first couple of times I played it, it was like so slow. I had trouble reading the music. I forgot what the keys were. And it was really slow going. Now in my second week, it's a little bit faster. Um, it doesn't yet really sound like a flowing song, but I'm getting there and I can tell the difference between this week and last week. And so just like those, that little progress has been really motivating for me.
And this is the concept that I wanted to share with you just a little bit of improvement every single day, working on our goals just a little bit every single day. I think I've spoken about the progress principle before, and it's basically the idea that as human beings, we want to grow. It is our nature to learn, to grow, to expand. And when we're doing that, we feel satisfied and content when we're not growing in some way, we feel stuck. We feel bored. We don't feel good about ourselves.
So it's really important as human beings to always be growing in some way every day. And so even just being a little tiny bit better today at something than you were yesterday, even just making a little bit of progress is going to feel really satisfying to you. And it's going to contribute to your happiness. So with whatever goal you chose, how can you make at least a little bit of progress every single day? And I'm talking even just a little bit.
So if you want to exercise more and you don't exercise at all right now, let's say going for, not even going for a walk around the block, but I think I gave this example before of like, you know, if you like to watch TV, watch TV and like march in place for one minute today, and then tomorrow march in place for two minutes. And then maybe the next week, take a walk down the street. And then the following week, take a walk around the block.
Like how can you make progress so easy and doable that you can't not do it? How can you break down your goals into just at least a little bit every day so that you are always making a little bit of progress? And like, it might seem very small to you in the beginning, but after like a week, two weeks, three weeks of making a little bit of progress every day, you're going to really start to see changes and you're going to feel good about yourself because you've stuck with it.
You're going to feel motivated and it's going to be like a snowball effect. You're really going to want to keep going. You're really going to start to see bigger strides in your improvement. And that is what's going to help you continue to keep going.
Now, if you do the opposite, let's say, instead of like a little bit of progress every day, you're like, I'm going to go to the gym, even though I haven't worked out in six months, and I'm going to freaking work out for an hour and a half, five days a week. A lot of people create goals like this. They go from zero to a hundred, and you might be able to sustain that from sheer willpower for like a week, a month, but it's probably not going to stick because it's not sustainable for most people.
I'm not saying that nobody can do this. I actually think it really depends on your personality. You know, maybe certain personalities do better with like going full force, like putting it all out there and like just, you know, zero to a hundred in two seconds. But a lot of people, including myself, like my personality is not, I'm not built like that. And I will burn out. I will be like, I'm over this. I don't want to do this. This is too much too fast. And I'll just stop doing it for me.
And I think for a lot of people, slow, like daily progress is going to be a lot more doable, a lot more sustainable, and a lot more successful in the long run. So you know yourself best. Think about what, how you work best, and you can decide whether you want to go full force or whether you want to just do little changes every single day. Okay. I also want to touch on the importance of understanding and recognizing why you're doing what you're doing.
Why are you creating the goals that you're creating for yourself? Why does it matter? Um, this is really important because when things get tough, when things get hard and you don't feel like doing it anymore, reconnecting with the reason behind what you're doing is going to help you to keep going. Okay. So for your goal, why did you choose it? Why do you care? Why do you want to work on that thing?
If you haven't thought about that, pause for a moment, get your pen and paper, and just journal about that for a few minutes. Why does it matter to you? Okay. Pause this if you need to, and then come back. So for me, why is it important for me to learn to play piano? Piano is not something that I plan to do professionally. It's not something that I need to survive or that's going to make me any money. So why am I even doing it? That's a really good question. And now I'm like, why?
I've thought about this and it's, it's really, I know that it's not necessary for me to, to live my life, but it does add an element of a different kind of energy into my life. And it reconnects me with my body. It reconnects, it helps me to be more present in the moment and in what I'm doing, because when I'm either on my phone or I'm on my computer, I'm often doing things that require a lot of thought, a lot of planning, thinking.
Um, and when we're planning and we're thinking, we're not really present in this very moment because we're thinking about the future, right? So inherently we're just not that present. Um, when I stop and get away from a screen and I either practice yoga, do meditation, go on a walk or do something like play piano, I'm just like, that is what I'm doing. I am in the moment and I'm enjoying that moment. And I, I feel good when I have more time in my day being present.
So that's why it's important to me. And not only that, but I just, I really enjoy music. I like creating things that are beautiful, whether it's, um, if I'm baking a beautiful pie or making delicious granola or creating beautiful music, even if it's not that beautiful right now, it's going to get there. So it's, I enjoy creating beautiful things and that brings an element of fulfillment to my life that I don't get, you know, doing other kinds of work.
So the more that I fill myself up with things that I just love and enjoy and that bring me pleasure, the more, the happier that I am. Okay. So life is not just about like being productive and work and making money. Like a fulfilling life incorporates a lot of different things. It does incorporate work. It does incorporate being able to earn money and take care of oneself. But obviously it, you also need more than that.
You need connection, friendship, family, hobbies, things that you enjoy, exercise, fresh air, whatever it is that fills your cup. So that's why learning piano is important to me.
And even if I like don't do anything with it, even if I don't plan to perform or anything like that, it still brings a very satisfying and joyful element into my day and learning a little bit more in a song and eventually being able to play a song fully without looking at the music, like that just seems like it would be really exciting to me. I haven't been able to do that since I was a child and learning a song that I love and that like people can sing to.
Like I'm thinking about my cousin right now. He also loves this song and we love karaoke. So I'm like, oh, it'd be so much fun if I could just play the song and he could like sing to it. That would bring me a lot of joy. So those are my whys for behind learning how to play piano again. That was kind of a simple goal for myself. It's not like a life or death situation. I was going to share like a more serious goal, but I've actually talked a lot longer than I was planning to on this episode.
So I think maybe I'll save that for a different day. But, um, you know, for yourself, whatever goal you choose, whether it's something really simple that will just bring more happiness into your life or whether it's something really big, like, um, like finding a different job or, um, like making a big change in your diet and exercise routine, like whatever it is, get clear on what it is.
Okay. So let's just break it down, get clear on what that goal is, write down and reflect on why it's important to you so that if you kind of stop wanting to do it, or you just like fall out of habit, you can come back to that why, and it will help to re-motivate you. Okay. So what is your why? And there's actually a book called start with why by Simon Sinek.
And he talks about like why it's so important to connect with your why and to start with your why whenever you're beginning any new project or endeavor. Okay. So that's the second thing. And then the third thing is how can you break, break this down so that every day you are taking some action towards that goal. So what is that action for you?
For me playing piano, it's five to 10 minutes in the morning after I wake up before I even go downstairs, it's just taking a few moments to play and to enjoy it. And I don't, I don't set a goal of like playing for an hour every day, because I know like, I'm not going to do that. That feels like too much for me. And it's like setting a goal like that long will make me not want to do it. And then I'll just like, I'll just stop.
And I'll be like, okay, I don't want to even like continue this anymore. So I've started like make it really doable, whatever it is your action is, what very actionable goal or action, what actionable action, what very simple action can you take every single day to make progress towards your goal.
And then, you know, notice like how it is at the end of the week and at the end of the next week, like look back and just notice how far you've come in two weeks, even though you haven't even like been doing anything super crazy or time consuming. Okay. So I hope that you enjoy this and that it helps you move towards your goals in a really fun and sustainable way.
And if you want to share whatever your goal is, feel free to leave it down below in the comments, or even send me an email if you like at rainbows are circles at gmail.com. And the R in rainbows are circles is just the letter R. So I will put that down below in the show notes. If you enjoyed this, please share it. Please leave a rating and review if you feel so inclined, so other people can find this podcast a little bit easier. And that's it for now.
Until then, have fun working towards your goals. And I wish you a very beautiful and fruitful beginning of your year.