Every year, millions of people resolve to do something different with their lives.  According to various statistics, anywhere from 78% to 93% of folks will fail to reach their goals.

In almost every case, the reason for failure boils down to ONE thing.

They tried to do too much at once.

Almost any goal can be achieved if you start small, and take it one step at a time.  It's like the old joke, "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."  It's also like the old proverb, "A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step."

Let's take a look at a few ways to break a large goal down into small, easy-to-achieve steps.

For our first example, consider the goal of losing weight, a common goal, especially following the winter holidays.  Many folks set a New Year's Resolution, and depending on how long they have neglected their physical conditioning, they may wish to lose 10, 20, or even 100 pounds.

Trying to do this all at once, as a single goal, is a recipe for failure.  Even if you stopped eating entirely, and did nothing but exercise all day, every day, progress would be slow.  Actually, when you cut your calorie intake below a certain level, it becomes even harder to lose weight, as your body lowers its metabolism to conserve calories.

A more balanced approach works best, and in this, you cut your calorie intake by a smaller amount.  Since most of us are required to maintain a certain level of responsibility and earn our paychecks, the time available for exercise is limited.  As such, making progress towards the goal of losing weight is slow and gradual.

The problem here is that the first few days of eating less and exercising more can take a lot of effort, since this may be a significant change in our lifestyle.  When you step on the scale to see how much you've lost, and see that it has only been a pound or two, many folks give up, thinking "it's just too much work."

What's the alternative, you ask?

There are a few, actually.  One alternative is to break your overall goal into smaller steps, like 1 pound at a time.  This is especially good in the beginning, because once you've lost the first pound, you can celebrate the achievement of your first goal.  Setting and reaching the next goal becomes easier, because you now have a history of success, albeit a short history.  After a few weeks or so, you will feel better about setting larger goals, like 5 pounds at a time, and while it may not happen any faster, it's a lot easier to be patient for the results to appear.

Another alternative is to change your goal from losing weight to living a more balanced lifestyle.  In this case, you may want to set a goal to eat healthy foods and exercise for 30 minutes a day for a week.  Allow yourself a treat at the end of the week to celebrate a successful achievement, and evaluate how you feel.

When you're ready, set a new goal for another week, and then another.  By constraining your efforts to one week at a time, you never have to worry about whether you can maintain the new lifestyle 'forever'.  And like the first alternative, once you've succeeded a few times, you just naturally feel better about yourself because of those successes.

As a second example, let's take a look at the goal to start your own business, another common goal.

In this case, you may start out without knowing anything about running a business, or having many resources to invest in starting it.

In this case too, there are several ways to break this down into smaller goals.

One possible subgoal would be to educate yourself on what it takes to start and run a successful business.  You could sign up for night classes at the local community college, or you could enlist the aid of governmental agencies like the Small Business Administration, who provide assistance to small businesses to help them succeed.  Another way of working towards this subgoal would be to practice with an online business, where you can learn the basics of business without investing much time or money.

With education as one subgoal, acquiring resources would be another subgoal.  If you take the educational route of starting an online business, your resource investment need not be large, and when you've learned how to make that work, it will provide all the financial resources you need to start another business, perhaps more suited to your interests.

In any case, it's important to realize that reaching your goal may take more time than you originally expect, especially when you enter into unfamiliar territory.  Learning how to start and run a successful business may take a month, it may take a year, or it may take several years, depending on the resources you have to work with, and how you proceed to learn business principles.  Investing in quality educational materials will certainly shorten the time factor, whereas trying to do it yourself with free materials found online can actually be detrimental, as there is a lot of "mis-information" to be found.

Taking on a business partner who already knows what it takes to start and run a successful business is a great way to go.  In this arrangement, your partner provides the direction, you provide the sweat equity, and perhaps you bring in another partner who can provide the financial resources to make it happen.  In this case, starting a successful business is simply a matter of finding the right partners.

One of the reasons why most successful businesses have many employees is because they have learned how to break a large goal (running a successful business) into many subgoals.

Follow their lead, and you can guarantee your success in reaching any goal you set for yourself.