Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation!

Throughout my life if you had asked me what the "key" to success is I would have given you a myriad of answers:

• Work harder than others
• Never give up
• Surround yourself with successful people
• Be consistent

In the past year my answer has once again changed to "go smaller."

Now it's still important to work hard and be consistent, but what if I told you it is easier to do those things if you first go smaller?

Let's get into it.

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Wisdom Tip of The Week: Go Smaller

The idea of going smaller is simple -- If you are struggling to accomplish something, it is because you are taking on too much, and you need to go smaller.

Struggling to meditate for 5 minutes a day? Go smaller. Meditate for one minute!

Can't get around to reading a book? Read one page a day, or read one paragraph, or one sentence!

You can almost always go smaller and create an easier milestone. I've talked about "no zero days" before, and going smaller helps you achieve no zero days.

In the next two sections I'll give examples on health and wealth, but for this section let's focus on productivity, organization, etc.

• If you struggle to write - start with writing one sentence only.
• Start by cleaning your desk before cleaning the entire office.
• Organize your computer desktop before moving to all of your computer files.

Everything can be broken down into smaller components to make them easier to handle. You just need to find what out how much smaller you need to go.

Once you master that level you can slowly start to go bigger if you want to. If that doesn't work out just go smaller again.

There is one universal solution to procrastination - go smaller.

How To Improve Your Health by Going Smaller

Exercise, eating healthier foods, getting better sleep, and meditation are universally considered "not easy" to do. That's fine because now we know we can just "go smaller" to get started in all of these areas.

Exercise:

• Instead of running a mile, run a block. Or better yet, walk a block.
• Instead of stretching for 10 min, start by stretching for 1-minute.
• Do 1-pushup instead of 10.

Eat healthier:

• Instead of eating 2,500 calories, eat 2,300
• have one-part of one-meal be healthier than normal
• Switch to Stevia instead of Sugar
• Drink one-less soda, or switch to diet soda

Get better sleep:

• Go to sleep 10-minutes earlier instead of a full hour earlier
• Reduce the room temperature by 1-degree
• Put your phone barely out of arms reach, or turn it off. Or turn off face recognition at night so you have to put in the code
• Take a 10-minute nap in the afternoon. Or a 5-minute nap.

Meditate:

• As I said before, try meditating for 1-minute instead of 5
• Focus on your breathing
• Count the inhales and the exhales up to 10 and then restart
• You can do this before you drive anywhere, or while you are in the restroom, or in the shower, or before you eat food, or during a commercial break.

By going smaller you enable and empower yourself to get started and get going.

How To Increase Wealth by Going Smaller

By now you should be getting the hang of this, but many of us still get weird when it comes to money. You don't have to save thousands of dollars a month to build up an emergency fund. It can start small.

Just like with health I will break this down into the four ways that we build wealth.

Reduce spending:

• Get a small coffee instead of a large
• Cook one meal a week instead of ordering out
• Drink a glass of water instead of a soda or beer
• Cancel Netflix or Hulu until you are ready to binge-watch a show, then reactivate just for the week
• Better yet share a Netflix account with someone else and split the cost

The ideas here are endless. Seriously.

Increase Income:

• Submit one job application a week
• Take on a part-time job of just 1-2 hours per week
• Write a medium article and join the Medium Partner Program to make a few cents on that article
• Drive for Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, DoorDash for 1-2 hours per week (listen to podcasts or audiobooks in the car)
• Better yet submit the application for these services. You have to start somewhere.

Reduce Debt:

• pay the minimum on all debts if you need to (for now)
• Cut out using one credit card and use cash or debit instead
• Switch one bill back to debt or bank transfer while you attack that credit card balance

Invest/Save:

• For every $ you don't spend, put it in savings
• Invest $1 a day instead of waiting until the end of the month
• Use apps like Acorn or Betterment to automate the process

I can give you countless examples of how to make things a little less intimidating. In the end it is up to you to not only go smaller, but to actually go smaller until you can consistently take action every day.

Once you get the hang of the action and master it, then you can try going bigger. Just remember if you start to feel overwhelmed you can easily go small again.

Never forget that.

Quote of the week:

More Resources

I will be adding to this section over time as we find resources that will help you all.

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