Sustainable Change Wins Every Time

How many times in an interview have you been asked: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” And how many of those times have you had to pull an answer out of nowhere because you weren’t totally sure? I know that for me, it happened all the time as an undergraduate. In fact, if you would’ve asked me just a few years ago where I imagined myself by now, there’s no way I would’ve been able to predict I’d be sitting here writing this.

Now I’m not saying all this because I think forward-thinking is useless. I am saying, though, that as humans, we are generally pretty good at envisioning who we’d like to become, but not always so great at planning the steps to get there. This often leads to making drastic changes in our lifestyle to try and fulfill this vision we have. Instead of trying to upend our entire lives in one day, we need to be okay with focusing on small actions that we can accomplish today, tomorrow, and every day after that. That is real, sustainable change.

Someone who eats more processed foods in their diet isn’t going to thrive off of immediately replacing them all with whole foods. Someone who wants to be more active isn’t going to walk into the gym and start squatting 200 pounds. Someone who wants more courage in social situations certainly wouldn’t force themselves on stage to perform a standup routine. You get the point. We often look at our inability to change quickly and think of it as a failure, which often leads to giving up. I propose, instead, to break down our long-term goals into smaller, accomplishable actions. So, rather than completely change your diet, add in some fruits or veggies for one meal. Rather than injure yourself trying to push your limits at the gym, try doing 10 push-ups every couple of days. Then, when you feel you’ve maintained that change for long enough, add in more whole foods or up your challenge to 15 push-ups. Trust me, these seemingly minuscule changes have a huge effect over the years and help us develop healthy relationships with what we incorporate into our lifestyle.

In the end, with any commitment that we’re making, it’s always great to ask yourself if you can maintain that commitment consistently. If not, that’s perfectly okay — just make some adjustments until you can. Don’t get me wrong, knowing your 5 to 10-year goal is important to reflect on. However, maybe employers should also be asking candidates how they’d break it down into specific, tangible actions.