Statement of the Law

The law of small steps posits that significant achievements can be realized if and only if one consistently takes the right incremental actions over time

Examples of this Law

1. Completing a novel by writing a certain number of words per day.

2. Earning a PhD by doing a few actions each day for a period of three or more years.

3. Going from couch potato to running a marathon by training on an ongoing basis for four months or more using a plan that has been devised by a competent running coach.

4. Learning to play guitar really well by learning a small amount of new things daily and repeating this over many year.

5. Climbing Mt Rainier by taking a few steps to move up to the next tree, rock or whatever and then repeating this for many hours until you experience the joy of the summit.

6. Accumulating millions of dollars by regularly investing a percentage of your monthly income for many years.

Rationale

1. Path. This law provides a path to great accomplishments.

2. Actionable: This law tells you want to do right now as in “today”: take the right actions.

3. Mandatory: This is the only method that works in most cases. We might win the lottery out of shear luck, but in most cases we have be very persist to accomplish great things.

How to Apply this Law

1. Goal State: Describe the best conditions in the future that you want for yourself.

2. Path: Figure out the right types of actions to get you there.

3. Action: Take the actions on the schedule you’ve picked. When you miss, and you will, begin again.

4. Reflective Thinking: On a regular basis, figure out how to move closer to your goal state and then follow up on what you have figured out.