Small steps every day add up to big things

The key here is to start small—which is why most people’s New Year’s resolutions and big promises to themselves rarely stick. Instead of trying to replace long-time habits with new ones, you want to put yourself on a path of improvement over time. Again, 1% better each day for a year is better than 100% better tomorrow, but then back to 0% the day after. I have also seen this same dynamic play out in the business world. One of my personal interests is health and wellness, and I have been a big proponent of eating keto, taking adaptogens, cordyceps, MCT oil, and so on.

And a few years ago we had an opportunity to roll out a version of one of our products with all those ingredients, attributes, and a bit of protein. And even though I loved the product, and so did some of the buyers, the majority of the customers at this grocery chain weren’t ready for it. This new product was too far from the anchor attributes of our brand—and so the product failed as a result. Without this lens of intentional, incremental changes, you can go too far, too fast, even with your product innovations.

Steps, be it small or large, don’t matter. What at all matters is your consistency towards achieving something, sharing time and determination with every move one takes. A tortoise can establish victory over a rabbit when it maintains consistency and determination in its move. Let me give you a simple life example. At night, you have noticed that the water tap in bathroom is leaking. Water keeps dropping and wasting. Now, grab a bucket and put it under tap. Go to sleep. When you will wake up and open bathroom room… What will you see? Bingo! The bucket is full of water without opening the tap! Now, you can wash your mouth or take shower without waiting for bucket filling that morning! You saved time! Now you can get ready for work/college more quickly!

Every single step.. little or big are important! Yes.. some has got more privilege than you! Yes… Some has got already so much opportunities to make this happened! So what? Don't be upset! You have courage! You are strong! Do your steps! Keep forward no matter what! At the end, when you'll achieve dreams.. you'll extremely happy to know that you did it. You did it without having any privilege!! You will understand the value of each steps, each second of your life!

Making a big life change is intimidating the only way to make a permanent change is to take it step by step. The best way to start is to sit down and make list of all the things you’ll need to change in order to reach your goal. Just an example but if you’re trying to eat better that means your going to have to change the way you grocery shop, possibly the way you eat and prepare your meals. My biggest piece of advice is to change the way you think about failure, in fact eliminate the word from your vocabulary and lower your expectations. That doesn’t mean to lower your expectations for the end result but as you start to work on making those changes allow yourself to be human and to make mistakes.

Our society tends to look at mistakes as failures but really they’re just learning opportunities and part of the battle. They’re should be expected but most people that attempt to make a big change go full force ahead and as soon as they make one mistake it’s all over. We tell ourselves well I already screwed this up, I’ll start again tomorrow and then tomorrow never comes. If you really want to make a big change in your life, make a plan and allow yourself room for mistakes. When you fall off track dust yourself off immediately and get right back on track, learn to let it go. Show yourself compassion for being human and give yourself credit for wanting to make these changes.

It depends on what that change is. Sometimes things happen outside of our locus of control, in which case all we can do is accept and adjust. If you are trying to change a habit, consistency is important. If you have the time to think about it and make a decision, then take a reasonable amount of time and really evaluate well, and if not, then do your best to choose well in the moment. Life is full of mistakes and successes and dumb luck, too. It really is up to you, how you handle whatever life throws at you, and however you decide to manage when you have the choice.

Major life changes that someone chooses to make, are often best made step by step. This may include deciding to have children, buying a house, moving, changing jobs or careers, choosing to go to school (or back to school), pursuing an advanced degree. However sometimes those same changes come involuntarily: You can lose your housing and be forced to move due to fire, flood etc. You may be forced to change careers or jobs due to changes with your company, being let go, economic issues.

Then there are the major life changes that hit us out of the blue: death of a loved one, sudden illness, accidents, injuries. Since we can't plan on when some of these may happen, doing the ones you consciously choose to pursue as a step by step process, helps prevent you from becoming overwhelmed when Life decides to toss in one or two you didn't plan on. Case in point: I'd struggled with my gender identity for decades. I finally figured out, and faced, the fact that I was in truth transsexual. I really didn't have much in the way of options once I faced reality. I could either transition and make the best of it. Or I could commit suicide and end any chance of being even remotely happy, all while burdening my family with my death.

So there I was with my then wife, trying to plan out the course of my transition; who to tell when and how for example. We both knew we'd be divorcing, as she is completely heterosexual and could even conceive of living in a same sex marriage. Then along the way my father-in-law died. 3 months later my mother died and my first grandchild was born. I also got divorced. And I moved out off the house I'd designed, built and lived in for 18 years. I had my name legally changed. I came out at work and to everyone I knew. My role in society changed. Within the span of less than a year I'd dealt with so many major life changes involving family, home, role, work, legal issues, deaths, births.

Some people marvel that I stayed sane (some might say I really didn't, but I love them anyways). A sort of numbness set in at one point as my mind and emotions could only deal with and process so much at once. So among those there were a few changes I chose, several I had no say in and Life just threw my way. So I advise always leaving yourself some sort of buffer in order to not overwhelm your resources for coping. Cheers!