{"id":15778,"date":"2024-11-01T08:06:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T09:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15778"},"modified":"2024-11-01T09:23:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T09:23:58","slug":"to-achieve-big-goals-think-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15778","title":{"rendered":"To Achieve Big Goals, Think Small"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Focus on the incremental steps that are in your control.<\/p>\n

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This weekend, I\u2019m running my 10th New York City Marathon. I\u2019m ready and the weather looks perfect. It should be a good day, in part because I learned a real lesson last year.<\/p>\n

At the 2023 Boston Marathon, I came in fit enough to know I was capable of a personal best time. But three miles in, I realized I was hurting way too early.<\/p>\n

I convinced myself that I never had to race a marathon again if I just got to Mile 10 on pace to hit my goal. At Mile 10, I told myself to get to the halfway point \u2014 13.1 miles \u2014 and then I\u2019d renegotiate. By Mile 22, after a few miles of stretching and deep breathing through a side stitch, I found a new wind and decided to reclaim whatever time I could. I ended up running those last four miles way faster than my pace at the start of the race.<\/p>\n

Without realizing it, I\u2019d broken down the race into what behavioral scientists and other experts call \u201cprocess goals,\u201d small objectives that were more in my control, instead of focusing on my original \u201coutcome goal\u201d of running my fastest time ever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That can be a remarkably effective strategy for all kinds of goal setting, it turns out. One broad review of research on athletes<\/a> suggested that process goals lead to better outcomes overall.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because focusing on one step at a time tamps down our anxiety while showing us what we can achieve, explained Ollie Williamson, the main author of the study.<\/p>\n

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Focus on the incremental steps that are in your control.This weekend, I\u2019m running my 10th New York City Marathon. I\u2019m ready and the weather looks perfect. It should be a good day, in part because I learned a real lesson last year.At the 2023 Boston Marathon, I came in fit enough to know I was capable of a personal best time. But three miles in, I realized I was hurting way too early.I convinced myself that I never had to race a marathon again if I just got to Mile 10 on pace to hit my goal. At Mile 10, I told myself to get to the halfway point \u2014 13.1 miles \u2014 and then I\u2019d renegotiate. By Mile 22, after a few miles of stretching and deep breathing through a side stitch, I found a new wind and decided to reclaim whatever time I could. I ended up running those last four miles way faster than my pace at the start of the race.Without realizing it, I\u2019d broken down the race into what behavioral scientists and other experts call \u201cprocess goals,\u201d small objectives that were more in my control, instead of focusing on my original \u201coutcome goal\u201d of running my fastest time ever.That can be a remarkably effective strategy for all kinds of goal setting, it turns out. One broad review of research on athletes suggested that process goals lead to better outcomes overall.That\u2019s because focusing on one step at a time tamps down our anxiety while showing us what we can achieve, explained Ollie Williamson, the main author of the study.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15780,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15781,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15778\/revisions\/15781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}