Steps in the Right Direction
As the year winds down and the holiday festivities settle, many of us reflect on what we’ve accomplished and what lies ahead. New Year's resolutions are a time-honored tradition—a moment to pause, reset, and set our sights on fresh goals. But let’s be honest: how many of those big resolutions stick? Success is rarely a leap—it’s a series of small, deliberate steps forward. In this excerpt from Designing Success, I explore how taking incremental steps, whether they’re career pivots or simple daily habits, can lead to meaningful, lasting change.
Step in the Right Direction
Most success stories don’t happen overnight.
In my conversation with Mike Schubert, creator of the podcast Potterless, he shared how he went full-time to podcasting. “I got fired.” But the whole story is more nuanced. He didn’t get “pushed into the fire” but changed his lifestyle, and the pieces fell together.
He had been working an engineering job in Texas, but his goal was to move to New York City to be closer to his now wife, Kelly. As the podcast started taking off, he could be more flexible with what he wanted to do as he didn’t need to command as high of a salary as before. He relaxed the constraints of the role, which was an engineering job, and optimized to find any affordable role that brought him where he wanted to be. He switched to working full time at a podcast advertising job in the city.
As he switched to that job, Potterless continued taking off, which was great but had other ramifications, as he told me, “I was, at that point, just not sleeping. I was just working, doing the podcast, going to bed... That got bad.”
He needed a change and decided to get a part-time job instead. The part-time job was still too much, so he realized he didn’t need to find another job when that ended. Schubert’s move to full-time podcasting was gradual. He stepped into smaller roles and did the footwork to determine his budget. When his employment was terminated from that part-time job, he was ready to be a full-time podcaster.
The steps toward your goals do not have to be big. In her podcast, The Lazy Genius, Kendra Adachi discussed how she wanted to start doing yoga. She knew it would benefit her body and mind but couldn’t figure out how to fit it in. Instead of giving up, Adachi set a very low goal: Do one downward dog pose daily. She did just the one pose for weeks before adding to it. By starting small, she was able to incorporate yoga into her life.1
If you have a big goal like going to graduate school, but the idea of taking the GMAT or GRE is just too much to handle, start small. Do one problem a day. Set aside five to ten minutes per day to look at programs. You don’t need to take a rocket ship to your goals; walking is fine.
Social psychologist and Wharton professor Katy Milkman found that to make changes stick, we must have sustainable solutions. We need to work on it continuously. It gets easier, but even after years, you may still need check-ins.2 Changing your environment is the same. You will need to take steps in the right direction. Whether those steps are beginning to set boundaries on your time or responsiveness, changing your decision-making environment to end decision paralysis, or expanding your network, you need to make forward progress.
If you want a plant to grow, you can’t only water it once.
As we prepare to turn the calendar to 2025, let’s leave behind the pressure of monumental resolutions. Instead, focus on finding those small, sustainable actions that align with your “why.” Whether it’s dedicating five minutes a day to a new skill, rethinking your career goals, or just being kinder to yourself, progress happens one step at a time. Let this season be your fresh start—not for chasing perfection, but for stepping closer to the life you want to design. Here’s to making 2025 a year of thoughtful, purpose-driven growth!
Thank you for reading my article series with excerpts from my book Designing Success! I’ve enjoyed sharing these excerpts from my book and hope you can make it to my virtual book launch party on January 9 at 1 pm EST. I'll share the story behind the book's creation, and we'll have a Q&A session to dive into topics from the book, the writing process, or anything else. Hope to see you there! RSVP here: https://landing.cconnelly.me/booklaunchparty
As we move into 2025, I’ll return to my normal Growing Up Startup content. Some of the next posts will be about creativity, negativity bias, and some fictional character leadership lessons – I’m excited to share them with you!
If this post resonated with you, please hit the “like” button and share it. I’m trying to grow my newsletter 🙂
Sources:
Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, “Monday Motivation with Kendra Adachi,” Office Ladies, released February 5, 2024, 00:40:57, https://officeladies.com/episodes/2024/05/02/ episode-194-5-monday-motivation-with-kendra-adachi.
Katy Milkman, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, read by Katy Milkman (New York: Penguin Audio, 2021), Audible audio ed., 06:13:00.