Stephen Covey, author of “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People” wrote about paradigm shifts. He describes a paradigm as a pattern or model. A generally accepted perspective. Paradigms are our view of the world, it is like the lenses of our glasses. A paradigm shift happens when our paradigms change or are challenged. This allows us to see the world in a new light. Many people think that personal change should be dramatic, filled with fireworks, and fanfare. This is not always the case. Yes, the results may be dramatic but the process is made up of small habits and decisions. I recently went through a paradigm shift discovering that personal change is mainly about small habits. These small habits are subtle and invisible to the naked eye. Most of the time personal change can only be seen after the process is completed, not during the process.
Go Big or Go Home?
Many people have heard of this statement, “Go big or go home”. It is an encouragement to go all out, to put one’s efforts into an enterprise. This statement was a sales slogan formed in the 1990s. Go big or go home used to be my paradigm about personal change or losing weight. I used to go on diets every January as my New Year’s Resolutions. Trying to overhaul everything by trying to change to every single factor of my diet and lifestyle. My gusto and zeal normally lasted a couple of weeks. After this, I was back to my old unhealthy habits which were followed by gaining all the weight back. This kind of thinking about changing everything at once did not last.
The Importance Of Small Daily Actions.
Everything great and big starts small. Small habits are important to get people started and master the process of building habits gradually. We think that focusing on big or many too many habits at the same time will cause personal change or weight loss to happen faster. This is not true. Recent research has found that multitasking decreases the quality of work and slows us down. When you try to go big by focusing on changing more than one habit, neither of the habits gets your full attention and energy. Lack of attention leads to problems.
It is very difficult for humans to change more than one habit at a time. Our brains are not able to focus on more than one thing at the same time. Our prefrontal cortex which controls focus is a finite resource. When we focus on changing two habits at the same time, we are dividing our focus, energy, and attention. Small habits enable us to focus on changing one thing at a time. Small habits help you to master the process of personal change!
Small Habits Build Integrity.
Identifying daily habits such as drinking water, avoiding sugar, eating healthy, and waking up on time increase our inner integrity. We start taking responsibility for our lives. Day by day our self-control and discipline will grow. When we build these small habits, even though we may not see progress, our discipline will become greater than our moods. Small daily habits start a ripple effect of personal change in our lives. When we master small daily actions, it will build our confidence to attempt to go after bigger goals. Building small daily actions is the key to creating a big change in our lives. The results may not be evident immedialty, but in a year’s time you will be transfomed into a new person!
Action Vs Motivation.
Small habits solve the problem of action and motivation. When we start a new task or personal change initiative we normally wait to be inspired or motivated before taking action. People are waiting for enough motivation or inspiration to start their weight loss journey. They are going to wait for a long time. Motivation is produced by acting on your goals. Many times, people may not feel motivated to eat healthy or workout. However, once they start doing these task motivation finds them on the way. Focusing on small daily actions helps you get into action instead of waiting for motivation. Get into the habit of forming small habits, get in motion.
Small Wins And Progress.
Small habits create small wins that will propel you forward. Any type of personal change will be long, mundane, and boring. When you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle mass the process is not exciting. People give up on the way because the process takes more time than expected. Having to wait for three to six months to see results may be demotivating. However, building tiny habits will create small wins which will motivate you to stick to the process. You may not be losing weight, however, finishing your workout without heavy breathing or running 5 kilometers without walking is a great milestone to celebrate. Celebrating small wins is important to building lasting habits. Micro habits helps create small wins and milestones.
Small Habits In Action.
Small habits are key to building sustainable change. BJ Fogg a Stanford researcher lost nine kilograms in six months by focusing on small habits. He calls them Tiny Habits. The tiny habit that started this personal change was doing two push-ups whenever he went to the bathroom. Can you imagine that? How difficult is it to do two push-ups? It is very easy, and you do not need tons of motivation. Fogg Developed other tiny health habits which was sparked by the first one.
My small habit was avoiding sugar for 90 days. This habit helped me developed other healthy habits. I started drinking more water, eating healthy foods, and running more often. Increased my water intake as I could not drink sugary drinks. I could not snack on sweets and processed carbs, this helped me find healthier snacks and foods. I started eating healthily which lead to running more often. Small habits will help you create meaningful change. I managed to lose 13 kilograms which were started by this small habit.
Small habits are the key to creating a big change in your life. Stop thinking that you must go big or go home for losing weight and living healthy. Identify one small habit you can focus on for at least three months and start adding other habits. It takes anything from 18 to 254 days to make a new behavior automatic. Many people take 66 days. Do not be in a hurry to form small habits. Take your time and keep the process moving and going. Celebrate small wins and milestones as they keep you going. Focusing on small actions takes the weight off your shoulders and makes change manageable and sustainable!