Break It Down

You know how people say you should break your goals down and accomplish them slowly? I thought I was.
I mean, my goal was "become a better, healthier person" right? So I broke it down into

Goal 1: read the Baha'i Writings every morning and evening and say the Obligatory Prayer every day and do the prescribed mediation (the 95s) every day.
Goal 2: eat healthily and mindfully and cook all my own food.
Goal 3: be asleep every day by 11pm and awake by 8am.

And things like that. So I figured, there: it's broken down into smaller goals. And then I'd fail miserably.

But just the past few days, I think I've really got the idea. Right now the guidelines I'm working with are:
Eat at least one meal a day actually sitting at my table, without multi-tasking.
Listen to and respect my body's genuine wants about what and how much to eat.
Only be on the computer (which is also my source of movies and tv) from 10am to 10pm.
Say either the Obligatory Prayer or the meditation every day.
When I wake up and at 10pm, have a cup of tea and read the Baha'i Writings while it's steeping.

SO MUCH easier! I don't know why I was so resistant to gradual before. Shame, maybe... I dunno, that a whole other post. But anyway. So yeah. I get into the groove of doing one meal a day mindfully, maybe I add a snack or another meal. Or once I've made a habit of the Obligatory Prayer (that's the choice I've been making usually; it's shorter) I add the meditation.

And here's the crazy part: now that I'm not being so dang rigid and idealistically unrealistic with my guidelines (isn't "guidelines" such a gentler sounding word that "goals"?), I'm actually enjoying meeting them! Not just the feeling of accomplishment when I meet them (although I ain't gonna lie, that's nice too) but the activities and guidelines themselves are actually fun and feel good.

Who knew?! (I mean, other than every self help book author or reader, therapist, person who has ever met a big goal, and person who uses cliches...)