Small Habits, Big Difference
Not as big a break in between posts this time, that may be a blessing for many of you!
Then again, if my waffle bored you, then you wouldn't come back and read it, unless you were a masochist!! 🤔
There could be a number of posts in the next week or so, sorry about that. You see, I've been to the doctors a few times since the passing of Jen, and it appears that I have a few things that need fixing.
At the moment I'm laying in a hospital bed going nuts as I am unable to leave my bed and am pretty much immobile due to being hooked up to different things.
I've had a dodgy ankle for a few years and finally it has been seen to, hence this hospital stay. That's the good news, but the bad news is that I need to keep weight off it for around 12 weeks. That will drive me around the bend, but when putting it in perspective I have zero to worry about. At least I'll get better.
Hopefully in a few months I'll be up and about with more confidence and less pain.
Now, to the title of this post..."Small Habits, Big Difference"
Where did this come from, and what on earth is he banging on about today??
Since I was away so much over the past 12 months, I read a number of inspirational books, and I think this one is going to resonate with me a lot too. Thanks to my sister Kate for this one, and also to the many others who have offered books to me to try while I'm off work.
Again!
I'm only 20 pages in and already I have taken so much from it. I'd never heard about the book or the author, but once I got started I soon began to realise he's got some serious cred in his field, is well recognised worldwide and explains himself very well.
Wow. I've nearly got more pictures than words, I better get down to it!
The basic premise is that small habits make big differences.
I'm sure Readers that we all want to make changes in our lives, but we always have reasons to not follow through.
I'm too busy.
It's too hard.
It just won't work.
Let someone else take care of it.
It just won't last.
etc.
As in previous posts, I mention a lot about mindset, and trying to find the positive in every situation. Believe me when I say I've tried to maintain this over the past 12 months, no matter how hard it is at times.
To make positive changes just by adopting or altering small habits can make a world of difference, and I hope you can go with me on this, or at least stop and think about it.
James Clear points out that too often we underestimate the power of making small improvements, and our focus goes towards making big improvements that involve large and sustained actions.
Who remembers making New Year's Eve resolutions!!!!! How are you going with them now??
We place undue pressure on ourselves to achieve these lofty goals with the end result being we just pull the pin completely.
The suggestion in the book is to make 1 % changes rather than big changes. Why only 1 % ?
It doesn't really seem noticeable, but it can be more meaningful, especially as it is easier to maintain in the long run. What starts as a small win can have so much potential to expand into something more. He provides his readers with a mathematical formula to say how by doing something 1 % better each day, by the end of 1 year you are 37% better. I won't bore you with the formula, even I have trouble going over it, but I love the premise.
He compares it to banking, so that captured my interest, having once worked in a bank before teaching, and now controlling our finances that Jen set up so well.
Compound interest happens when little amounts continue to multiply when added to an established amount. The same applies to our small habits. We add them to what we are already doing, and day by day the impact may be trivial, yet in the long term can become enormous.
The same could be said about bad habits, so which one should we direct our endeavours towards?
Think of some habits that you currently have, that have perhaps been established for years. Are there some that you are proud of? Not so proud of?
I sure do, and over the past few years I have tried to eradicate one in particular (Yep, I hear you all, "You've got plenty more you need to work on"!!)
I was always one to get frustrated in traffic and would often swear or mumble (or louder) under my breath at the slightest indiscretions. Even if it was being struck in traffic.
Until I heard someone on the radio one day say "Remember, when you complain about the traffic, YOU are the traffic too". Changed my mindset immediately, and now whenever I find myself starting to vent I just remember that quote and I'm calm again.
A small habit that I try to practice regularly that has resulted in long term benefits.
I've been ringing lots of banks etc this year getting things changed since Jen died, and inevitably I get put on hold for ages, just like everyone else. When I eventually speak to a real human, I take the nice and polite approach and it works wonders. In most cases, it's not the fault of the person I'm talking to that there was a long wait, that is due to decisions made by people superior to them who don't cop the flak from customers like me or you. I even ask if they cop abuse, and it's like they are just waiting for it to start from me, and when it's clear that I'm not going to be like that the help increases markedly.
And despite the wait, I get off the phone feeling so much better too.
Which one are you???????
We often dismiss these small changes in the moment because their significance is not always apparent to us on the day. Maybe not even after 3 days, or a week. This slow pace of change makes it easy to give up on them.
Let's compare it to a bad habit. If we keep doing it day after day, it becomes noticeable, and potentially a problem. That's when we need to do something about it, so then we are hopefully establishing a commitment to a better habit. The accumulation of so many bad habits can result in so many things that can affect us personally, socially and professionally, so is the choice being made for us?
Try ruling a straight line from the top of a page to the bottom of a page.
Now do it again, but make it just the tiniest bit crooked. At first you don't know that it's out of whack, but by the end of the line...whoa!!
Similarly, if a brickie put each brick out of whack by just the slightest amount or degree, imagine the overall result.
That's what I'm trying to get at Readers, that by just trying to be a little better each day, over time the changes and benefits can be much better than what we ever expected.
You might be thinking I'm taking too much pain relief here in hospital and am losing the plot again. You could be right!!
But hopefully, I just hope that you might stop and reflect on your various habits and identify the ones you are proud of, the ones you'd like to change and possibly some you'd like to experiment with.
And remember, no-one else may even notice what you are doing. You could be trying better at something every day and only YOU notice the difference. That's okay, because although others will benefit also, it's YOU that matters.
And finally, I keep lots of sayings, slogans and posters for self motivation and to use in future posts, and this one has been sitting on my computer desktop for ages, and was always up in my office when I had one.
I always love the responses or questions that you can leave via the link at the bottom of each post. I'll have lots of time to write in the coming weeks so any banter is welcome.
Until my next post...
Cheers 😁
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