Make Massive Change By Making Lots Of Small Changes

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Have you ever tried to start an exercise regime, only to fall back into your old lazy ways after a few short days or weeks?
Or maybe you’ve tried to go on a diet but failed miserably after only a few short days or weeks?

Or perhaps you’ve sworn off cigarettes but lasted only till the next craving kicked in?

If this sounds like you, then you are not alone.  I for one have been there and done that, but then I discovered the key to breaking through.  So today I’m going to share why we all often fail to make a massive change and then set out to provide you with a very small strategy to help you make a massive change in your life by taking a very small step over and over again.

But firstly, let’s have a look at why we often fail.  It’s interesting to note that sometimes we blame chemical dependency (in the case of tobacco addiction) but how can we blame this for failing to stick to a healthy eating plan or an exercise regime?  The answer may be in your brain and here’s why?

From an evolutionary standpoint, the human brain is one of the most unusual organs in the human body.  Our other organs like the heart, liver, intestines, and so on developed so well that they have remained virtually unchanged and consistent through eons of human evolution.  But for the last four or five hundred million years, the brain has continued to develop and change.

Today we actually have three separate brains that came along at intervals of about one or two hundred million years.  One of our challenges as humans today is to develop harmony among these different brains so as to avoid physical and emotional illness.

At the bottom of the brain is the brain stem.  It’s about five hundred million years old and is sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain (and in fact looks like an alligator’s whole brain).  The reptilian brain wakes you up in the morning, sends you off to sleep at night, and reminds your heart to beat.

Sitting on top of the brain stem is the mid brain, also known as the mammalian brain.  Roughly three hundred million years old, this is the brain possessed in one form or another by all mammals.  The mid brain regulates the body’s internal temperature, houses our emotions and governs our self defence mechanism called the fight or flight response that keeps us alive in the face of danger. (Remember this for later on as this is really important)

The third part of the brain is the cortex, which began to develop about one hundred million years ago.  The cortex, which wraps around the rest of the brain, is responsible for the miracle of what it means to be human.  Civilisation, art, science, and music all reside here.  It’s where our rational thoughts and impulses take place.  When we want to make a change or jump start the creative process, we need access to this section of the brain, the cortex.

This three brained arrangement that we as humans possess doesn’t always function smoothly.  When we want to implement some form of change but we experience a blockage, you can often blame the mid-brain for gumming up the works.  The mid-brain is where you’ll find a structure called the amygdala.  (a-MIG-duh-luh).

The amygdala is absolutely crucial to our survival.  It controls the fight or flight response, our built in self defence mechanism that we share with all other mammals.  It was designed to alert parts of the body for action in the face of immediate danger by activating various hormones to do their job.

The Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in and a whole stack of physiological changes happens to your bodies as a result.

One way the Sympathetic Nervous System accomplishes this is to slow down or stop other unnecessary functions that could interfere with the physical activity required to run or fight such as rational and creative thinking and this makes a lot of sense.

If a lion was charging at you, the brain doesn’t want you to waste time carefully thinking about how beautiful the lion is or how you are going to negotiate with it.  Instead, the brain simply shuts down non-essential functions and sends the body directly into action.

Thousands of years ago when our ancestors roamed the plains, jungles and savannas, the fight or flight mechanism came in handy whenever we put ourselves in danger by straying from the safe, the comfortable and familiar.  Compared to our natural predators, we lacked speed, strength and smell to outfight them and so we needed the ability to fight or flight.

Even today, we still need this self defence mechanism, such as if a car drives onto our side of the road or you need to escape from a burning building and herein lies the problem when it comes to making change.

Our amygdala and its fight or flight response sets off alarm bells whenever we want to make a departure from our usual, safe and comfortable routines.  The brain is designed so that any new challenge or opportunity or desire triggers some degree of fear.

Whether the challenge is a new job, meeting someone new, or simply implementing a health and fitness change, the amygdala alerts the body to prepare for action and our access to the cortex, the thinking part of the brain is restricted and sometimes is shut down.

So even though our conscious brain, the cortex is trying to tell you to NOT eat that chocolate cake, your amygdala cuts off access to the cortex and the message doesn’t get through.  You continue walking to the fridge, the door opens and as your hand reaches inside your mouth is opening and in goes that piece of chocolate cake.

Then once you settle on the couch with a full belly and you’ve relaxed, those pathways re-open, the message (don’t eat that cake) finally gets through and by then it’s too late.

So, what’s the key?  How can you make change (like implement a new lifestyle regime, give a up smoking or stick to a healthy diet) in such a way that access to the cortex is not restricted, so you can use your rational and creative way of thinking?

The answer is quite simple, make the change in such a way so as to not make that departure from your regular, normal and comfortable routine.

In other words, make very small subtle changes, one where you don’t instigate the fear factor in you.

Make small changes constantly and consistently so that over time, you’ve made a massive change, one small step at a time.  The Japanese understood this when they rebuilt their country after the devastation of World War Two and they named it, “The Kaizen Way”.

By making small and constant changes to their processes, they were able to rebuild their country to become one of the most powerful economic powers in the world by the end of the 20^th century, less than 60 years after it was brought to its knees.

In the health and fitness industry, we are all often guilty of trying to make too many changes too quickly with our clients and then wonder why they are unable to stick with the program.  With the main focus areas being exercise, nutrition, recovery and de-stress it’s no wonder health and fitness professionals struggle to influence their clients to make the necessary changes required to change their lives.

Because we are all so different, one small step for one person may be a huge step for another, so here’s my top ten tips for making massive change by making lots of small changes.

1.    Have A Definitive WHAT.  Have a clear understanding of what exactly it is you want to achieve.  This means setting up your definite WHAT.

2.    Know Your Massive WHY. While giving up smoking or sticking to a healthy eating plan may be the WHAT, Robert Kyosaki in his popular book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” stated quite correctly that the why must be bigger than the what.  So, you need to know what your Why is.  An example of a why you want to give up smoking may be a simple as save money as was the case with my wife Vee.  She gave up smoking so we could buy our first house.  In 7 months she had saved enough to make as down payment.  Obviously, the health benefits were clearly evident as well, but for Vee, the WHY had to be bigger than the WHAT and it was.  So make sure your WHY is bigger and stronger than your WHAT

3.    Set A Time Frame. It is important that your “WHAT” has a definitive “achieve by date”.  JF Kennedy gave a speech to the US public in the early 1960’s that went something along the lines of this.  “By the end of this decade, we will put a man safely on the moon and bring him safely back to earth.”  And if you believe history, in 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of Apollo 11 and took those famous few steps.  Oh and by the way, you don’t have to have all the answers when you set this time frame.  Just surround yourself with the right people to help you.  When JFK made that speech, NAASA didn’t exist and the Americans didn’t possess the technology to put a rocket into space.  At the end of WWII and the fall of Germany, the Soviet Union captured all of Germany’s scientists who had been working on the U2 rocket project, hence the reason why they led the Space race.

4.    Break It Down. Once you have a what, why and when, time to break it down into even smaller manageable pieces. Have you ever tried to eat a dried wheat Biscuit?  Probably not.  It’s an old drinking game that I learned during my University days.  See how long it takes when to stuff an entire biscuit into your mouth and try to eat it dry.  It doesn’t work.  On the other hand, take tiny little bites and you can have that biscuit gone in no time flat.  Once you’ve worked out all the small steps you need to take to get to what it is you want, by the time frame you set for yourself,

5. Ask Lots Of Small Questions. As humans we are more stimulated when we are asked questions than merely just being preached to.  An inquisitive or competitive streak in us comes to the surface when we are asked questions.  Go back and read the first paragraph of this article.  What did it start with?  3 questions.  Why, to get you interested.  Hopefully, if you are still reading, then the tactic worked.  So, along your journey keep asking yourself small questions.  It’s a great way of putting into practice the art of taking small steps.  Ask small questions.  If you are implementing an exercise regime an example of a question could be, “What one thing can I do today to add more movement to my day, than I did yesterday?”

6. Track Your Progress. It is vital that in order to appeal to our emotional and creative aspects of our brain (the cortex) we keep written records of our plans and their effectiveness.  However, simply writing things down isn’t enough.  You will need to attach emotional thoughts and feeling to those records to make them feel, smell, taste and become real. The more real we deem them to be, the more we will work at achieving the grand master plan. Otherwise you are simply keeping a log.

7.     Surround Yourself With Experts. All the successful people throughout history understood this one simple concept.  Hence the reason why they were so successful.  In my early years as a PT I tried to do everything to build my business, to the extent that I did everything half arsed.  Now I’ve learned through a long and slow process that I focus my own personal efforts on what I am good at and love doing.  For example, I used to spend a lot of my time designing logos and other marketing stuff for my business because I was too tight to spend money engaging in someone with far better skills to do that.  As it turned out, I have since found someone who does all that for me.  One of my clients whose hourly rate is in the vicinity of $350 per hour hires someone to mow his lawns.  Why?  Because it costs him $65 to free up an hour of his time so he can better utilise that same 60 minutes.  Remember, we don’t all possess to know everything, so what better way than to surround yourself with all the experts in their field, so you don’t have to become the expert.

If you haven’t already then check out my latest tool to keep you accountable, hold you to your goals, keep you motivated and get you your results.  Its a training diary with a difference.  (Coming soon)