Martha Beck in her fabulous book Finding Your Own North Star talks about the enormous challenge of trying to complete her PhD thesis.   Initially tasking herself writing some 12 hours a day, day after day passed and she hadn’t written a word.

Stressed but still unable to motivate herself to begin, she knew that she needed to negotiate with herself for a reduced workload or she would never get the thesis written.  So, she asked herself what would work using her physical reaction to the proposed time as her guide.  Six hours?  No.  Three hours? No.  Ninety minutes?  No.  Finally she reached the point where she physically didn’t recoil: 15 minutes.  15 minutes is what felt doable to her.  And so she started working on the thesis, for 15 minutes at a go.

Now some might laugh at this and think “How in the world can you write a PhD. thesis in 15 minute intervals?”  Well, apparently quite successfully.   Within a year, Beck completed the dissertation and was awarded her Harvard Ph.D.  Of course on some days she wrote considerably more, but on the days where she couldn’t muster more than the 15 minutes, she let herself off the hook.

Beck calls this method the turtle step–the largest possible task that your essential self can do easily.

Most of us reject the turtle step method because we think we won’t get anything done at such a slow rate.  So, instead, they do absolutely nothing.  But, as Beck points out “slow and steady wins races a lot more often than paralyzed and inert.  String together enough steps—even turtle steps—and you’ll eventually make it to the top of Everest.”

So, as you continue frame your goals and resolutions for 2012, consider turtle steps.   Get the house organized by working 5 minutes a night.  Lose weight by walking 10 minutes a day.  Whatever your goals are that the ones that you are really resistant too and just feel too big overcome, turtle steps just might be the key to your progress.

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