I've started and abandoned so many things.
Learning languages. Exercise programs. Side projects. Morning routines. Each time I'd set these ambitious goals - run 5k every day! build an app in a month! wake up at 5am! - and each time I'd last maybe two weeks before falling off completely.
For years I thought I lacked discipline. Turns out I was just setting myself up to fail.
The unsexy reality
Here's what nobody puts on Instagram: meaningful progress is boring.
200 words doesn't feel like writing a book. One pushup doesn't feel like getting fit. 10 minutes of code doesn't feel like building something real.
But 200 words a day for a year is 73,000 words. That's a book. The math works, it just doesn't feel like it in the moment.
We want the transformation montage. We get the repetitive daily grind. And that gap between expectation and reality is where most people quit.
Why tiny targets work
I can commit to writing for 10 minutes a day. I cannot commit to writing for 2 hours a day.
Not because 2 hours is physically impossible. Because on the days when everything goes wrong - sick kid, work crisis, zero motivation - I'll skip 2 hours. And once I skip once, I'll skip again. And then I've lost the habit.
But 10 minutes? I can do that even on terrible days. Especially on terrible days, because it's easy and completing it gives me a small win when everything else feels hard.
The bar needs to be low enough that you clear it even at your worst.
My actual numbers
I tracked my writing last year. Most days were 200-400 words. Some days I barely hit 100. Nothing impressive. Nothing that felt like I was making progress.
End of year: 89,000 words. More than I'd ever written in a single year. With less effort per day than any of my previous "I'm going to write a lot!" attempts.
The consistency was everything. The daily amount was almost irrelevant.
How I set goals now
Whatever I'm trying to do, I ask: what's the smallest version that still counts?
Want to exercise? 5 pushups. Want to read more? 1 page. Want to code on side projects? 15 minutes. Want to meditate? 2 minutes.
These should feel almost embarrassing. That's the point. You're not optimizing for any single day. You're optimizing for 300 days of actually doing the thing.
The invisible progress
It doesn't feel linear because it isn't.
Early on, my small efforts produced small results. The gap between where I was and where I wanted to be looked the same. This is when most people quit.
But somewhere around month 4 or 5, something shifted. Not dramatically - just... momentum. The habit was solid. The accumulated work started to be visible. Progress felt real instead of theoretical.
I didn't suddenly get better. I got consistently okay, for long enough that it compounded.
Pick one thing. Set a target so small it feels silly. Do it tomorrow.
That's it. No elaborate system. No expensive course. No optimal routine.
Just small. Consistent. Boring.
It works. I didn't believe it either until I tried it.