This week I saw the movie "Touching the Void" and despite knowing exactly what was going to happen I was totally riveted by it! It's a re-enactment of the adventure of two young English mountaineers who climbed an isolated peak in Peru and had a disastrous accident on the way down. The movie gives an opportunity to see an awe-inspiringly beautiful world that we will never otherwise experience. as well as a powerful demonstration of the qualities needed for success (and in this case survival) in life.
Both men displayed immense courage, willpower and the ability to make the toughest choices imaginable. Joe, who fell down a crevasse and was left for dead, also used the principles of chunking down and micro-movements to achieve the seemingly impossible task of getting out of the crevasse and down an endless crevasse riddled glacier as well as over a horribly rocky morraine while in excruciating pain from a seriously broken leg and suffering intense dehydration.
The way he motivated himself to tackle a simply mammoth task was to set himself little distance goals, timing them and racing against himself. As soon as he arrived at his destination he set another goal - to get to the next snow hillock, past the next crevasse, to the next rock, dragging his body along on the ground to see if he could beat his previous time. His obsessive attention to setting one little goal after another and the willpower to go after it is what enabled him to cover an impossible distance and save his own life.
What set of small tasks are you going to set yourself in order to achieve a much bigger (maybe seemingly impossible) goal?