How do you make long-term progress?

Most of us set goals around a minimum.

• Walk at least 10,000 steps.
• Write at least 500 words.
• Read at least 20 pages.

The unspoken rule is that if you can do more, you should. So we push hard on the good days until we stall, burn out, and quit.

But what if your goals had an upper limit as well?

• At least 10,000 steps, but no more than 15,000.
• At least 500 words, but no more than 1,000.
• At least 20 pages, but no more than 40.

Most growth has a sweet spot. Push enough to make progress, but not so much that you can’t keep going.

I learned this in the gym.

For the past 3 months, I haven’t missed a single day. At first, I made fast progress, adding 5 pounds, then 10, to my lifts. But about 4 weeks in, my joints began to ache. Soon even the lighter weights hurt too much to lift.

Four weeks of rushing sent me back to the weights I started with.

This time, I set a cap: no more than 5 pounds or 1 extra rep at a time. Some days I could have done more. I held back on purpose so I wouldn’t get hurt again. I wanted every set to feel easy.

The benefit of setting an upper limit is that it makes it easier to sustain your progress. You make small progress every day rather than cram all your effort on the good days. And when you continue to make progress, you break through plateaus.

In other words, set an upper limit on your goals so you can sustain long-term growth.