Note the Story

Recently, I watched a TED Talk by Stephen Duneier on YouTube, and I was truly amazed by his speech and approach. While many of us struggle to finish our daily tasks, he managed to achieve some of his most ambitious goals just by making small, consistent adjustments in his daily routine.

Duneier shared his personal journey, starting from kindergarten to high school, where he was an average student with mostly C- grades. But when he entered college, he decided it was time to make a change a small, marginal adjustment.

He realized that he couldn’t concentrate for long periods, so he broke his studies into small tasks that he could finish in just 5 to 10 minutes with full focus. After each short study session, he would take a break have a coffee or play a video game for 5 to 10 minutes then return to studying. He didn’t always continue the same subject or assignment, but he stayed consistent.

From that point on, this simple method helped him succeed, and he graduated with A+ grades throughout college.

He later started using the same approach in his work life too. This small-step strategy helped him achieve an extraordinary career transformation he eventually became the Head of Currency Option Trading at Bank of America and later led Emerging Markets at AIG International and rise to the post of CEO of a successful investment company. Duneier says that his success came from this personal method of breaking big goals into small, manageable steps.

He shared a strategy that helped him succeed in many areas of his life. For example, he learned German in just one year by using his commute time wisely. Instead of listening to music while driving to work, he started listening to German language CDs. Over the year, he listened to 33 CDs and became fluent in German!

How would your life change if you improved everything just a little at a time?

Most of us find it hard to focus on boring tasks. But if you break those tasks into small parts and give just 5 to 10 minutes of full focus to each part, you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.

Even small efforts, done consistently, can lead you to 100% success.

What about you? Are you ready to try small steps to reach big goals?

Here’s the TED Talk I watched—definitely worth your time! Give it a watch and get inspired to start making small changes that can lead to big results.