3 Causes and Effects of Progress Dissatisfaction | An Alternative Approach (with an example) | Bottom Line

Do you ever get stressed out and bogged down after one “unsuccessful” day? Here’s how a simple shift in your perspective to the bigger picture can improve mood and productivity.

It feels like life is moving fast. The people around you are moving on to their next chapter and social media is littered with posts of big achievements.

With the combined ideas of time running out and not wanting to be left behind, you’re piling up your plate in the form of setting too many goals and cramming your days. 

Rushing from one thing to the next, trying to stay on track with all the tasks you’ve set, and getting lost in a whirlwind of checkboxes, a crash is almost inevitable.

That process can work for some, but seeing the bigger picture and taking one step at a time is the better alternative for most of us.  

Whatever the goal, the destination always seems so far away, and that’s an issue for longevity and consistency.

However, understanding why that occurs can help improve mindfulness and correct goal-harming behavior.

The following are three causes and effects.

1. Unrealistic expectations 

You set out on a big new goal and you think you can sprint the whole distance. But you forget that you need a breather, there are obstacles in the way, and the conditions can change.

You end up moving at a slower pace anyway and are forced to extend your deadline.

Consequently, you feel as though you’re moving too slowly and are not happy with your progress, leading to unfulfillment and dissatisfaction.

2. Lack of patience 

In this case, you may understand the task at hand is large but you want results ASAP, resulting in a more rushed attitude to work. 

It’s important to understand the difference between moving fast and rushing.

Moving fast implies efficiency in completion whilst rushing is more along the lines of finding shortcuts and loopholes, risking a decline in the quality of the result.

3. Instant gratification 

You’re not seeing results, or you’re not seeing results fast enough, so why continue?

This leads to short-sighted behavior, prioritizing activities that result in quick gains and never completely seeing larger, more meaningful challenges through to the end.

Those three causes have a crossover and their consequences share a commonality: unhappiness with progression.

A simple, but not necessarily easy, mindset switch is to focus on the bigger picture and accept that things will take time. 

View a day as a single step on a longer journey towards your destination, and set tasks accordingly.

You don’t stand at the bottom of Mount Everest fearing the journey to the peak. 

You’d set a checkpoint and rest satisfied and guilt-free once you’re there, knowing you’ve done enough for the day on your trek to the top.

Here’s one way you can go about doing just that:

1. Set a goal and make it specific 

Let’s use a fitness-based example. The goal is to lose 20kg of fat.

2. Break the goal down into separate smaller goals, which may also serve as daily/weekly objectives

To lose fat, you must hit specific calorie and macro goals, optimize exercise selection and workload, and effectively scale cardio (to learn how to implement each of those into a fat loss plan, read Cutting Concepts).

3. Set frequent numerical checkpoints 

In the case of fat loss, this would be a weekly weight loss rate, such as 0.25kg, 0.5kg, 0.75kg, etc.

For other goals, these “checkpoints” may emerge as the length of time or the percentage completed. 

4. Track, compare, and assess

Are you losing weight at your desired rate? 

If yes, great! Be content knowing you’re making progress and proceed as usual.

If not, why? Is something amiss or are the checkpoints unrealistic? Make changes accordingly.

Breaking a goal down into smaller goals gives you detailed direction, checkpoints enable efficiency monitoring, and frequent assessment allows for continued progression.

That combination switches your mindset. 

You know you’re on the right path as you’re making progress toward your goal, but you also remain motivated and fulfilled through completing the smaller objectives.

Using the process above changes your mindset. 

Instead of being overwhelmed with your goals and stressing about your rate of progress, you focus on collecting smaller wins on a day-to-day basis.

Hit your calories? One win.

Hit your protein? Two wins.

Trained today? Three wins.

Hit your target weight for the week? Another win.

Conversely, visualizing the bigger picture lies in checking off the smaller goals.

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