Did you know that the little things we do, can make a difference in our lives? Consider the next two statements
“It’s all the little things that annoy me.”
Or
“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Both statements above are more about how negative small things can add up, but why not flip this concept on its head and make it work in our favour? Why not change the little things in our life, for the better, to make a real impact?
I recently watched a video that reminded me of the significance of the little choices we make every day –
- The extra biscuit we eat with our coffee which over time puts on excess weight.
- Making the choice to park further away from our destination which over time helps us to improve our health and fitness.
- The extra 30 minutes sleep which allows your body more time to rest and restore, leading to better thinking.
- 20 minutes reading today or learning something new which increases our knowledge of the world and improves brain function. (Incidentally we can do this on our commute to and from work by downloading audio books).
What you do today, affects your future. And while you may not notice the impact these little changes make today or tomorrow or even next week, in 6 months’ time you will see and feel the difference. Now that difference can be positive or negative depending on the changes you make today.
Making Changes
Do you ever think… I need to make changes now! My health, my weight, my life is going down the toilet, so I want to make a drastic change NOW!
I want to lose 20 kg in 4 weeks!
I want to quit all chocolate, sugar, or sweets today.
I want to say NO when I mean it.
I want to quit coffee.
I want to quit soft drink.
I want to meditate every day.
I want to exercise every day.
While to some these may not seem like big goals, for others they are huge. Take for instance the coffee drinker. I have known people to drink 8-10 cups of coffee a day. And while their body may be desperately wanting them to stop all the caffeine, their brain needs a little bit of coaxing. It needs time to adjust to the lower levels of caffeine and to make changes to the habit of grabbing that coffee.
When we deprive ourselves of something that we have enjoyed for a period of time it can cause an opposite reaction and we rebel, quite often reversing our new healthier habit and bouncing back with even more extreme behavior.
Therefore, the power to making changes in your life is to do them incrementally, one little thing at a time.
If we take the coffee example, we could start by reducing our intake to one less cup a day until we get to 2-3 where we can stay for a period of a few weeks, allowing our body time to adjust. We could also increase our water intake by having 2 glasses of water in between each cup of coffee. In this instance, we not only increase our water intake (which our body would be desperate for) but due to the extra fluids we are consuming, it will make easier to decrease our coffee intake. The same could be applied here for reducing soft drinks. Drink at least 2 glasses of water between each glass of soft drink.
If we take meditation or exercise as an example, we could start off by doing a short meditation or walk every other day until we feel like we are getting into the swing of things and then increasing the duration and regularity.
So make those small changes and before you know it, six months would have passed, and suddenly you notice just how much your life has changed.
What small change will you make to your daily routine today?
And remember, Happiness Starts with a Smile and Empowerment Starts with a Choice!
If you want more motivation to make those changes, check out my video here.
