Perception- Small is Big

The start of the 2020 brought back the cheerful and optimistic time of making resolutions. We are programmed to set big goals, not achieve them completely, feel guilty for less than planned self-improvement and then wait for a new Monday, new month or a new year to set even bigger goals.

I believe that it is not the big things that make an impact, it's the little ones.

For most of us, small treats underlie the big punishments. Snoozing alarm by 20 min to skip the run plan which you so deliberately planned never hurts one time, but if done fifty times - it makes you unfit. Cheating on being sugar-free by eating a chocolate once, can double your workout time for your next day.

A way to change the way we behave is to make these small failures big. My dad suggested paying him 500 bucks every time I skipped my run. I'm pretty sure that if I lose 500 bucks every time I skipped my run, I'd only do it once in a week perhaps (gulp). The other thing which can be done is to have high awareness about each individual action and do constant course corrections by monitoring our performance - apps which monitor your eating habits, productivity apps for ensuring capped social media time and others.

We under emphasize how small things can make a big impact. Well, here are a few for starters:

1. Eating a chocolate after meal can double your normal workout time.

2. However, saving 10 minutes from lunch and spending it on reading can get you places.

3. Taking out ten minutes from social media and learning 5 new words or knowing about 5 new ideas can add roughly 1800 words or 1800 new ideas to your perspective at year end.

Small is actually big. Start small.

Perfectly imperfect,

Ujjwal