The document discusses how making small, incremental changes can help create momentum towards achieving larger goals. It recommends identifying one habit that is contributing to a downward trend, making an easy small change to generate an upward trend, and documenting small wins to feel a sense of progress. Tracking small successes creates "progress loops" that boost confidence and motivate further action through the release of dopamine in the brain. The key is to start small in order to begin the long journey of improvement.

1. Small Wins
By
Michael Venske
© 2016 - FINAL - 2/14/2016 Michael Venske
1 / 612 / 248 6459
email@michaelvenske.com
michaelvenske.com

2. HOST / ACTOR
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu
said, "The journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step."
And what’s the hardest part?
Starting.
It doesn’t take much to start. For
Lao Tzu it’s that single step. A
little forward momentum to get
things going. That’s what we’re
talking about today.
It sounds so simple and easy,
right? But if you can barely see
the end goal because it’s a
thousands miles away you’re likely
to feel overwhelmed, depressed, and
wonder: why bother?
For instance, let’s say you’re not
in perfect health. You’ve
completely let yourself go. You’re
eating 42,000 calories a day and
flabby, out of shape. You’re not
exercising, definitely not eating
right, or getting enough sleep.
You’re a sad lump who knows you’re
not where you want to be.
ILLUSTRATION: DOWNWARD TREND
Here’s where you’re at. You keep
eating junk foods full of sugar,
fat, and salt because they’re quick
and easy. But they don’t provide
nutrition your body needs.
So you don’t have the energy
necessary to get your butt off the
couch to get the exercise and fresh
air your body needs which would
help you sleep at night.
And you know this, because you’re
smart. But you’re stuck making dumb
choices.
You want to be healthy and strong
and look at your body in the mirror
and think, "Damn, I look good!" But
you’re so far from perfection all
you think is: "why bother, fatty?"

3. 2.
Or have you ever tried flirting
with someone and failed? Like that
time in third grade where you tried
to kiss the girl you’ve had a crush
on your whole life and she kicked
you in the balls?
You failed so bad you vowed never
to risk putting yourself (or your
testicles) out there again. You
told yourself: "I’m not interesting
or good looking and I never will
be! Every person I like wants to
mash my manhood. I’m going to die
alone: so why bother?"
That mindset and those habits are
all part of a vicious cycle
of downward trends. Pretty soon
your reality -- your current trend
-- just flatlines.
ILLUSTRATION: DOWNWARD TREND LEADING TO FLATLINE
Your life has bottomed out. You’ve
allowed negative experiences and
habits to contribute to a downward
trend that’s lasted so long you’ve
lost any momentum toward your goals
or dreams.
All it took was one negative
experience or habit and suddenly
you’re not good enough or worthy of
love and your whole life starts
trending downward.
You’re not alone though. It happens
to a lot of people. But if you’re
aware of the trend you can help
change it with a "little" forward
momentum.
Everyone says "bigger is better,"
but small...is the new big. Like
pink is the new black and weird is
the new cool.
Small is the new big.
You want to make a big change in
your life? You want to go from
flabby to fit or from shy to
confident? Then start with small
wins.

4. 3.
On a scale of one to ten, with ten
being your perfect reality, what
number would you give yourself? Are
you somewhere in the middle or near
giving up or next to success? Now
what small thing could you easily
accomplish to help move you up one
step?
Maybe you’ve got money issues.
You’ve looked at the trends in your
spending and discovered ten percent
of your yearly income goes to
something you enjoy, but don’t
necessarily need.
Instead of cutting that spending
out entirely, start small and
create some momentum for an upward
trend with a small win.
If seven days a week you buy the
same thing -- maybe it’s a cup of
coffee -- cut your spending to five
days a week. Then put the money you
would’ve spent on coffee into
savings. Congratulations, you just
created an upward trend!
Our reality is comprised of habits.
Spending habits, eating habits,
health habits. We’re creatures of
habits.
Without awareness it can be
difficult to see the habits
contributing to our lack of
momentum and downward trends.
Though some habits are glaringly
obvious...
The nose-picking booger-flicking
finger-licking habits that make you
so, you?
But whether personal and private or
public and proud, habits define
you. So are you the nose-picker or
rubbish-picker-upper?
What habit is pulling your life
down? Are you ready for that
downward trend to stop? Of course
(MORE)

5. 4.
HOST / ACTOR (cont’d)
you want to turn your life around.
That’s why you’re here.
You’re not satisfied. You want to
turn things around, but you don’t
have the energy to put on trousers
because you’re exhausted.
Seventeen-hours of non-stop
couch potato-ing will do that to a
man.
But if you can identify one
specific habit that’s contributing
to this downward trend and it can
be anything from drinking too much
black tea to not exercising
regularly... Whatever’s not helping
your life trend upward is a good
habit to target.
How can you bring upward momentum
to your life with small wins in as
little as five days?
For the answer we’re going to need
science’s help. Thankfully the
geniuses at Harvard have all the
solutions to our quarter-life
quandaries...
They discovered how tracking small
achievements every day creates the
"progress principle."
Recording progress helps appreciate
small wins which boost confidence
and then can be leveraged toward
other larger successes and creates
"progress loops."
Every time you put the money you
would’ve spent on coffee into
savings and document the fact:
you’re creating a progress loop.
Every time you eat something
natural, fresh and green and write
it down: you’re creating a progress
loop.
Each innocent interaction with
someone you’re interested in that
(MORE)

6. 5.
HOST / ACTOR (cont’d)
doesn’t end with you being
physically assaulted is worth
documenting in a diary because this
small win is creating another
progress loop.
Small wins create progress loops
and progress loops create momentum
which help you trend upward.
Your big goals and dreams are only
for charting your progress. By
breaking each large goal into
smaller, easy-to-accomplish,
manageable tasks you’re reducing
fear, clarifying direction and
increasing the probability of early
successful outcomes and helps you
go from here...
ILLUSTRATION: DOWNWARD TREND
...to here.
ILLUSTRATION: UPWARD TREND
Because every accomplishment -- the
small wins you’re documenting
everyday -- activates the reward
circuitry in our brains. A
chemical’s released and you feel
groovy.
That chemical, the neurotransmitter
dopamine, is one of the "feel good"
chemicals in our brains. Not only
does it reward us for
accomplishments, but dopamine
drives us to take action toward
what trigged its initial release.
But you have to be careful with
that dopamine stuff. It’s the same
junk that gets people addicted to
junk food, booze and cigarettes.
Do you want to be addicted to
something that creates a downward
trend inhibiting momentum or
something that creates upward
momentum?
Obviously you want the forward
momentum to accomplish big goals
(MORE)

7. 6.
HOST / ACTOR (cont’d)
and to do that you have to start
small. Take the first step on that
thousand mile journey with these
three pointers:
ILLUSTRATION: "#1 FIND WHERE YOU’RE TRENDING DOWN"
1) Find where you’re trending down.
Pick one thing that’s decreasing
your reality and slowing your
momentum.
Maybe your love life is
nonexistent.
ILLUSTRATION: "#2: HOW CAN YOU EASILY GENERATE A SMALL WIN?"
2) How can you easily generate a
small win? What’s something you can
accomplish today to create upward
momentum?
If the problem is your romantic
relationships keep trending down,
create that upward momentum with
some self-love.
Brush your teeth, trim your nails,
get a haircut, take a shower,
shave, and put on some clean
clothes. And when you approach
someone you’d like to get to know
better you won’t look or smell like
a beggar.
These small things will create
confidence, give you momentum and
start to help you trend upward.
ILLUSTRATION: "#3: DOCUMENT YOUR SMALL WINS"
3) Set aside time to document your
small wins. Take five minutes to
write about your accomplishment in
whatever medium you’re comfortable.
Pen and paper? Online? You decide.
It’s gonna feel great to look back
and read: "Met someone today who
didn’t kick me between the legs.
Things are starting to look up!"
Start small and big things happen.
(MORE)

8. 7.
HOST / ACTOR (cont’d)
And if you need help you can
sign-up here. Signing-up could even
be your first small win!
Start the progress loop now by
taking the first step on your
journey to a better you and the
momentum will move you to new
heights.
SOURCES
"How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the
Real World"
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.674/abstract;jsession
"How Long To Form a Habit"
- http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php
"Meet Your Happy Chemicals"
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/59029/happy-chemica
"How to stay motivated: The art & science of leveraging
small wins"
- http://productivemag.com/21/how-to-stay-motivated-the-art-science-of-
"The Power Of Small Wins: 5 Questions With Teresa Amabile"
- https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/
"5 Ways to Celebrate Small Wins on Your Way to World
Domination" - http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246817
"Small Wins and Feeling Good"
- https://hbr.org/2011/05/small-wins-and-feeling-good/