Let’s talk about goals. If you’re like me, we would shudder together at this word. Like setting KPIs at work or making New Year resolutions, setting goals can be a painful, fruitless experience. We begin by setting a lofty goal for ourselves. Motivation drives us for some time, but eventually it withers and our goal seems far and unobtainable. Let’s look at an example.

A common New Year resolution is to exercise everyday. The new year brings motivation and drives us to commit to the gym. We envision ourselves doing all the things that other gym goers do. Go on a run, lift weights, stretch, walk 10k steps everyday. But after a few weeks, many of us end up missing days here and there, then multiple days in a row, and eventually give up all together.

Maybe we try again and the goal is set to just 3 times a week. This seems much easier, but even then, we inevitably fall back into our old sedentary habits.

I’ve personally fallen into this trap for so many of my goals, that I shy away from setting goals at all. But I recently listened to a Tim Ferris interview with Jerry Seinfeld that got me rethinking goals. In the interview, Seinfeld says:

“It’s like you’ve got to treat your brain like a dog you just got. The mind is infinite in wisdom. The brain is a stupid, little dog that is easily trained. Do not confuse the mind with the brain. The brain is so easy to master. You just have to confine it. You confine it. And it’s done through repetition and systematization.”

The comparison of our brain to a dog triggered my first memories of playing fetch with my brother’s dog, Miggy (who is super awesome as you can tell from his Instagram).

When I was first started playing fetch with him, I would throw the ball pretty far. I thought that would give him more joy since he could chase the ball further. I noticed however, if I threw the ball too far, he wouldn’t chase it at all. He’d see how far the ball was traveling, then look at me with an expression of “wtf, I’m not getting that.” We’d have a staring contest and I’d sheepishly retrieve the ball. I quickly learned that there was a range from too close to too far, and that too close was better than too far.

What the ball is to Miggy, our goals are to our brain. We have to set goals that are just far enough to create a challenge, yet not too far to seem impossible.

This doesn’t mean we should aim lower. We should always aim high, but be able to break down the goal to smaller goals that are just enough for us to chase and be satisfied. Over time, the mini goals evolve as we progress towards the ultimate goal.

I seem to always come back to starting small, but that’s been the most helpful when starting anything. We can’t expect to become an exercise enthusiast over night. The goal may be to go to the gym everyday, but we can start by going on a walk everyday. Or maybe even just putting on sneakers. As you progress, you shift your mini goals just enough to keep you challenged. Over time, you’ll have developed the repetition and systematization to keep you moving forward.

So set your goal, break it down into just enough mini goals (starting small), and adapt as you progress. As Jerry Seinfeld says, train your brain just like you’d train a dog. Now go play fetch with your brain.