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Big Goals, Little Steps
A 37-minute podcast episode about making a daunting goal manageable by breaking it into small steps
Why it’s worth your time
Katy Milkman's Choiceology episode looks at one simple way to make a daunting goal manageable: breaking it into small steps. It pairs an Olympic gymnast's story with a researcher's work on savings goals. A work goal that's too big to start, from a certification to a move into a different team, can often move once you cut it to a piece you can do this week.
Breaking a big goal into small steps
- Listen to the episode.
It comes in two parts. First Shannon Miller describes how she approached her goals in gymnastics, and how that approach helped her through a serious illness. Then Hal Hershfield joins Milkman to talk about breaking savings goals into smaller amounts over shorter stretches, and about cases where that may not serve you.
- Cut one goal down to this week's step.
Pick a work goal you've been putting off. Write the smallest piece of it you could finish in the next few days, such as one email to someone who has done it, one hour on the application or one page of the plan. Put that piece on your calendar.
Good moments for this: when a goal feels too big to startwhile planning the next few monthson a drive or a long walk
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- You know what’s nextTruest suggests the next small thing to try, based on what you’re working on.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Many work goals need a yes from a manager, a budget or another team. If that's true of yours, the smallest real step may be a question to that person about what they're trying to get done, which can move things further than a week of preparing alone.
What might make this harder
Make it smaller again, until it fits in fifteen minutes, and book it at a time you already protect, such as the first half hour of your day.
Questions people ask
What is Choiceology's Big Goals, Little Steps episode about?
A 2021 Choiceology episode, hosted by Katy Milkman for Charles Schwab, on making ambitious goals manageable by breaking them into small steps. It's built from Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller's story and a conversation with the researcher Hal Hershfield about savings goals.
How do you break a big goal into small steps at work?
Name the smallest piece you could finish this week and put it on your calendar. When it's done, name the next one. If you don't know the steps yet, make the first one asking someone who has done it.
Is saving in smaller amounts always the better deal?
Not always, according to the show notes: Hershfield discusses cases where saving in smaller, more frequent amounts may not be in your interest. The notes don't say what those cases are, or whether the point reaches goals other than saving.
Who is Shannon Miller?
An American gymnast and seven-time Olympic medalist, twice inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame. She tells her own story in a memoir, It's Not About Perfect.
What it says, and how it holds up
Plenty of ambitious plans, such as a degree, a business or a change of career, get dropped because they look too big from the starting line. That's the problem this 2021 episode of Choiceology takes on. A goal cut into near-term pieces can feel possible to begin, and beginning is often the stretch where plans stall.
Shannon Miller, one of the most decorated gymnasts the sport has produced, describes learning early that her biggest ambitions would take many small steps, an approach the notes credit with helping her through a serious illness as well. Then Hal Hershfield, a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management when the episode aired, talks with Milkman about dividing a savings target into smaller, more frequent amounts, and about when smaller increments might not be the better deal; the show notes point to the field experiment he wrote up with Stephen Shu and Shlomo Benartzi for details. Schwab makes the show, and the episode notes carry the firm's disclosures.
The savings half is about money, though the idea underneath may carry over to work. Small steps tend to help most when you're sure of the goal and stuck on starting. Some goals tend to need long, unbroken stretches instead, such as studying for an exam or drafting a long proposal, and cut into small daily pieces they can leave you always restarting; for those, the better first step may be clearing one half-day and guarding it.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.