TRTC - How Do You You Eat an Elephant?

Step 3: How Do You Eat an Elephant?

Let’s face it, life can be overwhelming, challenging, and downright unforgiving at times.  Work commitments, family schedules, and recently, the weather, can cause us to feel like a fraudulent circus juggler.  We profess our ability to manage it all yet seem surprised when a ball falls from our grips and rolls away.  Is there any wonder why we drop our New Year’s Resolutions?  Are we fooling ourselves into believing we can juggle something else?  If I told you there was a way you could do it all, would you believe me?

Nobel Prize laureate, Desmond Tutu, provided a solution to our overwhelm when he said, “there is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”  He simplifies an insurmountable challenge by focusing on the individual steps necessary to complete the task; just take one bite over and over and over until it’s gone.  No longer focused on the big picture, we are able to narrow our focus on manageable, daily tasks.

How to start: Reverse Engineer the Bigger Goal

By now, you’ve stated your intentions, started reading The Compound Effect, and collected data to drive future decisions.  Now it’s time to eat!  Reverse engineering uses the same principles in that you look at the global goal and outline the steps you must take to success. 

As an example, consider the goal of saving $10,000 a year.  That number alone is daunting, so let’s reverse engineer how we can make this a reality.

·       There are 12 months in a year: you would have to save $833.33 a month.  Nope.  Too big of a number to comprehend.

·       There are 52 weeks in a year: you would have to save $192.31 a week.  That’s still a scary number.

·       There are 365 days in a year: you would have to save $27.40 a day.  But that STILL seems like a lot of money.

This is where your data collection becomes important.  If saving money is a goal, then you are tracking your spending, setting a monthly budget, and looking at ways to cut expenses.  This is what I did when I was saving for my car last year:

·       Only did my nails once a month: saved $60/month.

·       Cut all the “for fee” apps on my phone: saved $25/month.

·       Stopped buying my caffeine and made it at home: saved $50/month.

·       Ate all the food in the fridge/freezer before going food shopping: saved $75/month.

·       Stopped my Planet Fitness membership: saved $20/month.

My total monthly savings: $230 or $2760/year.  Now the $10,000 goal is $7240.

·       There are 12 months in a year: new savings $603.33/month.

·       There are 52 weeks in a year: new savings 139.23/week.

·       There are 365 days in a year: new savings $19.84.  That’s an easier number to swallow.

This process works for any goal, but requires your time, energy, and thought.  Making a goal statement without the data and reverse engineering will always just be a statement until you take action. 

Your next step is to take one of your goals and reverse engineer it.  List the steps you are going to take to make your goal a reality.  Think of all the ways to make it work.  If it isn’t written down, it won’t get done!