At the suggestion of my BeachBody Coach, I recently started reading "THE COMPOUND EFFECT" by Darren Hardy. I'm not done with it yet, but I am completely fascinated by the principle of the "Compound Effect". The first thing that I came across that really made sense to me was this:
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
I really gave this a lot of thought this morning as I sat in my chemo chair (nothing but time on my hands, might as well make something of it, right?). I tried to reflect back on times in my life when I have made small changes that didn't seem like they would amount to much. Let me give you an example, several years ago, my husband and I tried the Nutri-System diet. We both lost the weight that wanted to loose, however we returned right back to our normal eating habits once the pre-packaged (cardboard) food was gone. But, there was one change that both of us took with us from that diet. We don't drink pop anymore! At the time, I didn't think much of it, but when you apply this principle, it makes a big change over time in our overall health and probably our waist lines. Eliminating a couple of cans of pop a day doesn't seem like it would amount to much, but now that I look at this a different way, I realize that we've saved ourselves thousands upon thousands of calories (and money too) over the last 5 years not drinking pop. Not to mention the fact that pop consumption was replaced with water consumption- that in itself is a radical and healthy change! We definitely benefited from that one.
I think that a lot of us have things about our lives that we would like to change. Sometimes it seems like the change is just so big that we either attempt to put the change out of our minds and leave everything "as-is" or we start attempting to change and fail because we took on too much at one time. I've been there before on that one.
I found myself in a situation that I wanted to change at the end of May. I was successful at heading in the direction of change for several reasons.
1. I was determined to make the change.
2. I set small, realistic goals for myself.
3. I had excellent support & motivation.
Rather than thinking about all of the things that I was going to have to change, I just changed a few small things. I added some intensity to my daily exercise. I didn't jump off the deep end and commit myself to a 2 year membership at the local gym. I didn't run out and buy a ton of new exercise equipment. (I did buy a video however!-- Small change) I didn't make a ton of commitments that would have been hard for me to keep. I made a 21 day commitment (It's a small change). When you look at something on a smaller level- it makes it so much easier to start it and stick with it. Granted, I met my goal on this challenge. Did it change my life? Yes. Am I exactly where I want to be? No. But, it certainly got me on the right track. If we don't ever start making changes, how can we ever expect to finish? Change is a work in progress... And as I am finding, one good, small change, leads to another good, small change...
Think about something in your life that you've considered changing for a while. Have you taken actions to make those changes and jumped ship because you weren't seeing results fast enough? (Understandable, we live in a world of instant gratification.) Or have you put it off because the task is so daunting? It has been my personal experience in life, that sometimes, changing just one negative behavior, can lead to others following. For example: When I started the 21 Day Challenge, I cleaned out all of the junk food in my pantry. Once I did that, there wasn't anything left to snack on. The result was not only that I stopped eating things that were bad for me and my waistline, but I had to go in search of things to eat that were healthy for me. Once I started eating those things, I immediately saw my energy levels increase. My hair and nails are growing like crazy, and I feel a lot better. The better you feel, the easier it becomes to make more positive changes. And I am continuing to make changes in the food in our home, and on our table.
What small single positive change can you make in your life that could result in a RADICAL DIFFERENCE?
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