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Donna Anderson's avatar

In Dog training the slang for this is called “Chunking it down”. Taking a big goal and breaking it into smaller chunks that you then build upon. It’s a scientific Learning theory. (Positive reinforcement). Everytime you conquer one of these smaller chunks, and it makes you feel good, you are reinforced. Making conquering the next chunk more enticing. The hard part is knowing how to chunk down the behavior or goal you are trying to achieve. THAT IS THE HARDEST PART. We are trained to look at the big goal (the mountain) and we find it impossible to move that mountain because it’s so big. But as a people we find it hard to understand that moving a mountain starts with picking up the first stone and just moving that. But even that can’t happen unless we take our eyes off the mountain peak and lower our eyes then our head and body to simply stoop to pick up that first stone. Even a saying as simple as “All journeys start with a first step” can be chunked down further for example: (here are my steps) 1. Wake up, 2.sit up, 3.stand up and so forth. It’s hard to take a step if you’re still sleeping or lying in bed or sitting in a chair. So the lesson: Break ALL YOUR GOALS into small attainable steps and start there. Your progress into attaining that big goal will depend on how many attainable steps you create. I with dog training you can’t make the steps too small. I have found over the years that the more small goals you can break a big goal into the faster you make progress. Because each small goal can be attained easily and quickly. What most people do to try to save time is to break big goals into medium goals that are harder to attain and take longer to attain than tiny or small goals. And many people simply give up. So if you feel like giving up that should tell you that you didnt “chunk it down” enough.

And oh by the way, nobody is saying that to move a mountain you have to do it one stone at a time. That is daunting. In our day and time we can use heavy machinery… however that means learning how to use that machinery. A whole different batch of chunks. So figure out where you want to be or do, decide how you want to accomplish that, then chunk it down. Simple and hard at the same time.

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Jacek Wojtalewicz's avatar

Indeed

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