We often have goals, motivation for change, improvement (and so we should). Sometimes we want to open a new leaf, to start over completely. Other times we feel like facing a challenge guns ablazing, storm to the head of the mountain and get it done and over with.
This approach is very common, especially if you’re like me – impatient. The problem is, when you try to improve or change something all at once, you often give it great significance. This significance puts pressure on you, and one one hand pushes you forward. On the other hand, the challenge becomes big in your mind, because it’s so significant, it literally becomes a mountain you feel you have to climb. This metaphor creates a feeling of overwhelm, and gives rise to fears. It will also consume your motivation and wear it out.
On the other hand, look at a plant. Its essence is dedicated for growing, just as we all are, when we’re healthy. But normally you wouldn’t see a bean grow a giant bean stalk over night, these images are reserved to man-made fairy tales. In real life, growth takes time, and is done with tiny steps. Instead of swinging from one point to another, it consists of an infinite number of points of balance. The way of effective change is by making an infinitely small change, maintaining balance, and then making another small change, rinse and repeat. Another problem with big changes, is that they take a great deal of self control/determination/discipline. Essentially when the change is too big, it feels like pulling an elastic band, the longer you stretch it, the more force you have to use to keep it stretched. If you keep spending that energy you’ll get weaker and tired, and eventually let go. Now imagine what would happen to that band once you let go…
My advice is, whenever you’re facing a challenge – a big assignment or change you wish to have in your life, chunk it down. By chunking down I mean, take the change and divide it to several steps, the smaller the steps are – the better, especially if you list them somewhere and keep track. You can read an example of chunking down in a answer I wrote on Quora recently. In this answer, I encouraged the writer of the question to make a plan to focus their attention on schoolwork in incremental steps, starting with just 2 minutes at first. By chunking a challenge down to easy small steps you get several benefits:
- You reduce the significance of the challenge, and no longer get overwhelmed by its size or difficulty.
- You make each step an easy step, helping you prevent procrastination, because it is no longer this huge thing you have to do, it’s just a small task, so why not get it over with?
- You can check that box. Making a list of small easy steps, and checking each step off is incredibly empowering. As human beings we often like to check boxes, it helps keep track of our progress and make us see that we are getting further along, and closer to our goal.
- You can cultivate a feeling of accomplishment with each step. We’ve all made a cognitive link between success and happiness, so that whenever we achieve something, we feel happy and empowered. By chunking down, you get an infinitely larger number of successes to enjoy, but only if you allow yourself to! If you make each step a smaller peak, and stop to enjoy the view on your way to the mountain top, your quality of life will improve greatly.
- You make the change into a habit. If you recall my elastic band metaphor from earlier. Chunking down, is like pulling the band only slightly each time, and allowing it to adjust, so it’s in a new state, and won’t revert back if you release. This allows for a more sustainable change and helps prevent a backlash should you pause or stop your progress. Eventually, your change is no longer unfamiliar, it’s just another habit you have and don’t even have to think about, you just do it, and spend much less attention and energy on it.
The last part is the main reason why whenever someone comes to me and ask about dietary change I advise chunking down. A diet isn’t or shouldn’t be something you do until ‘X’ happens, it’s something you are doing always, it’s a habit of nutrition. Of course it changes with time, a diet much like life should be dynamic and fit our health and lifestyle, but it should never be something you “go on”, because going on a diet is like a large pull on the elastic band, and most people who went on different diets know the pain of letting go of the elastic band.
So go on, storm new mountain tops, and reach new heights, it’s what we’re meant to do in this life, it makes life exciting and worth living, but make sure you see all the little peaks on the way to the mountain tops. As always I ask that if you enjoyed this or felt this post benefits you, please share it with people you think might also benefit with reading it.
Meet you on the next peak,
Your wizard.
Yair Simo - coaching SAGE advice 