A mind blowing singular breakthrough is not what changes your life. A micro shift is.
Small continuous actions are what lead to monumental changes. Consistent actions towards your goals are what lead to sustainable and long term change. Although, we would all like to have a huge “ah-ha” moment where everything clicks into place, this is rarely what happens.
The moments where we feel like things are clicking are created by the 1,000 small moments that came before it. The big moments are created by the times we took tiny steps towards our goals, when we felt stuck but kept going.
The instances you chose to add a vegetable to one meal had to come before you could regularly eat a balanced diet. The hundreds of time you wrote a paper and scored below average had to come before you could get an A. Running for 5 minutes had to come before you could finish a marathon. Paying $20.00 towards your loans had to come before you became debt free.
We often discredit these “small” steps in the right direction. We want the big moments where it seems like everything serendipitously came together. The graduation, the wedding, paying off your debt, working out regularly. But those huge moments are the results of thousands of small choices made day after day, year after year. It’s the small moves in a general direction continuously repeated despite setbacks, mistakes, and failures that matter.
Next time you feel discouraged remember it’s the small things that change your life. It doesn’t have to be perfect; you only have to keep getting up and keep moving forward.
Today I challenge you to take one small step towards your goals. What’s one action you can take right now to bring you closer to the person you want to be or the life you want to live? It can be anything but here’s a list you can choose from if you’re feeling uninspired: drink a class of water, make your annual doctor’s appointment that you’ve been putting off, call your mom, write a letter to your grandma and mail it to her, go for a walk, organize your t-shirt drawer, plan out what you’re having for dinner this week, eat some blueberries, make some tea and read a book, invest in yourself, stretch for 5 minutes, meditate for one minute, put $20.00 into your savings account, go look in the mirror and give yourself a high five.
What’s one thing you can do today? Keep looking for the small things you can do. Those small actions make all the difference.