By DailyWorth Team Sent: Tuesday January 03, 2012

Photo Source: my2butterflies' shop on Etsy

Three days into 2012—how are you doing with those resolutions? Far from perfect, right?

S’all right.

In his new book 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, Peter Bregman knocks down the notion of “perfect” success with one swift sentence:

“The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity.”

What a breathtaking, freeing idea.

Doing everything right, right away, is not only unnatural, the pressure alone typically can lead you to a) procrastinate; b) abandon your goal; or c) feel like a failure despite all your hard work and progress. Remember last year?

Bregman’s top tip: Don’t try to get a project right all at once. Just get it going.

Create the spreadsheet (but don’t populate every cell). Design the first slide (but not the whole presentation), run one mile (but not five).

Taking small steps gives you more chances to succeed, Bregman says, and fuels your confidence that you’ll nail that goal after all.

Get moving. What’s one step you can take today, toward a 2012 goal?