Did you ever consider that setting large goals may not work for you?
We’re often told that we should dream big and stay tapped into higher values to remain constantly motivated.
However, for many people this approach to goal setting often backfires. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by large goals. You may end up procrastinating or feel uneasy instead of motivated.
I find that making 1% changes i.e. tiny changes often leads to better results than if I focused on major goals.
I’ve created 30-day challenges and built everyday habits. One of the results is that I started running more. And I’ve made other health changes that allows me to be a better spouse, parent, and business owner.
Let’s look at what makes small changes lead to dramatic improvements in life. It’s when you understand the impact that a 1% improvement makes, you’ll be able to apply it to anything in your own life and experience disproportionate success.
Focus on core success factors
When making tiny changes, you need to start by identifying areas where you need to make the most change and create improvements there.
For example, if your relationship with your family is not healthy, then the answer will not be in giving more gifts or buying things. Instead, you may notice that you don’t know what’s happening in a person’s life. Making the tiny effort to ask what your spouse or child is interested in right now or what they’re doing can be vastly more impactful than making grand gestures.
Likewise, if you’re starting a business or are trying to create a blog, instead of focusing on bells and whistles like expensive animation or elaborate marketing, send a simple feedback form to your clients and ask them what they want.
If you want your small changes to matter, then you need to make changes in the right places. Do your research, introspect, or listen carefully to others to know what needs your attention the most.
Make behavioural changes
When making 1% changes, it has to do more with your everyday behavior rather than external factors.
If you’re trying to be a better writer, then you need to focus on the act of writing. You don’t need a fancy laptop or specialized writing tools.
If you’d like to grow as a freelancer or an artist, then you need to pick up the phone and call people or send emails to the right organizations. Investing in a number of freelancing tools or other external items is not what drives success.
To make small changes work for you, break down your goals into smaller ones. Think about the habits you need to carry out for your goal to happen in the future. Then focus on the behaviors you need to adopt. As an example, I wanted to drink more water every day. So, I made sure to place a full glass of water by my bedside. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I did was drink the glass of water. Soon enough, it became part of my behavioral pattern
When you understand the behaviors you need to take up, you’ll be able to modify your actions a tiny amount and see success over time.
Be consistent
The final element that makes it possible for a 1% change to create amazing results is consistency.
A 1% change carried out only one time will not make much of a difference in your life. But it’s making that one percent change over and over again that leads to disproportionate results.
This happens because your efforts compound over time. Each new effort builds on the previous one, which slowly but steadily snowballs into a significant change.
For example, if you want to exercise more but find it hard to do so, you could start with taking a quick stroll around the neighborhood.
If you do this daily, you’ll start to make it part of your daily routine. Over time, you can increase the time you walk or even start jogging instead. Every day you spend exercising creates changes in your body, until the day comes when you’re surprised by the stamina you’ve built up.
What matters is being consistent and staying focused on incremental improvements in your chosen area of life.
Conclusion
A 1% change in your life can be to wake up five minutes earlier. You could listen to just one short podcast as you do your chores. Or perhaps, you can publish one social media post a day or even choose to switch off your phone for just half an hour daily.
As insignificant as these changes seem, their impact plays out in the long run. There’s a saying that goes:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Even making tiny changes and sticking to them far outweighs adrenaline-fueled efforts that burn out after a short while.
Use the suggestions in this post to make your own tiny changes in life. As time goes by, you’ll see significant changes that can alter your life, grow your business, or impact the happiness of other people.