What gets Sarah Green Carmichael out of bed each morning? The possibility that her Podcast will create better leaders. She says that by making it accessible and free to all, anyone can see themselves as a leader.

“I don’t think that there’s a person out there who thinks the world has enough good leaders,” said Carmichael. “We need more”

Carmichael produced Harvard Business Review’s Podcast, IdeaCast, for 10 years where she recorded over 600 interviews with some of the smartest people on the planet. These are her top three takeaways.

Lesson #1: Focus On Consistency

Instead of focusing on greatness, Carmichael focuses on consistency. And for her, that leads to greatness. She has produced one podcast per week for 10 years at Harvard Business Review, and the result is a successful, thriving career.

“You don’t have to climb Mount Everest,” said Carmichael. “Just climb a small mountain every day. That’s how I approach life. Just do something every day, be consistent, small wins.”

Related: The Secret to Staying Motivated Consistently

Lesson #2: Have Clear Achievable Goals

You can imagine that Carmichael has picked up a lot of great advice over her 10 years on the HBR IdeaCast. So we asked her if there were any lessons that she applied to her own life.

“When setting goals the research says you should be very specific and concrete. And that you should write down your progress to keep yourself accountable.”

“So, I write down: I am going to edit six articles this week and I tell my boss that. I’ve set those numerical goals and then I have a spreadsheet where I track my progress. It’s a color-coded spreadsheet and it’s a little nerdy, but it works for me.”

Related: How Working Together Helps You Tackle Your Goals

Lesson #3: Celebrate the Small Wins

It can be easy to get consumed by your goals, with your eye on the big prize. But after everything that Carmichael has learned, she says that focusing on small wins along the way will keep you more motivated.

“The Power of Small Wins episode that I did with Harvard Professor Theresa Amabile talked about how if you can make progress on your goal every day it will keep you motivated.” 

She says having tangible progress and being able to see that today you made it five inches closer to your goal will keep you moving forward.

So, take a page from Harvard Business Review’s book, celebrate the small wins as much as reaching the big goal.

For more from Sarah Green Carmichael, listen to the Spartan Up! podcast in its entirety.

This episode of Spartan Up is brought to you by Shady Rays Polarized shades you can afford to lose or break - because they’ll replace them for free.  Go to www.Shadyrays.com and use code SPARTAN for 50% off 2 or more pairs.

TIME STAMPS 0:00 Intro to the episode with the Col., Joe, Johnny & Dr. L 1:50 SHADYRAYS.COM “Built for Adventure” 2:35 Interview begins with Sarah Green Carmichael 3:30 The “Power of Small Wins”: tangible progress 4:30 Rick Ridgeway’s summit of K2 without oxygen: acceptance of risk 7:00 Weekly podcasts & summiting peaks 8:45 “Women at Work” Podcast 10:30 Competition in the workplace 12:05 SHADYRAYS.COM Sponsor Break 13:45 Interview continues with: take the best forget the rest… 14:45 Setting goals- committing to it publicly 16:55 Creating a “time diary” 17:45 Why we podcast? 19:30 The panel discusses the Sarah Green Carmichael interview 27:40 SHADYRAYS.COM close  

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CREDITS: Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc. Hosts – Joe De Sena, Col. Nye, Johnny Waite & guest host Dr. Lara Pence Synopsis – Sefra Alexandra | Seed Huntress Production Assistant – Andrea Hagarty

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