Rather than Radical Change, first try Infinitesimally Small Micro-adjustments.
In my experience, people tend to get overwhelmed quickly and quit when the idea of change becomes a practical matter. It’s certainly one thing to say you want to do something and another to have to do it. “I want to climb Mount Everest” is a simple thing to say and a nearly impossible thing to do. Maybe what you are saying is, “I would like a challenge that has been done before, but is outside the limits of my current ability. I would like to do something that challenges me on multiple levels and has a degree of danger, and also I would like to survive”. A good question to ask if you really want to climb Mount Everest is…Am I willing to train for it, book the guide service, make the arrangements to be gone for a few months overseas, and risk my life and limb for the opportunity to climb the worlds highest peak?
Start smaller. Build wins. Gain confidence.
I would argue that you should start much much smaller. Many people tend to want the extreme of something. They want the highest mountain when they would better off walking around their block without stopping for 20 minutes.
What is the smallest challenge that pushes you slightly outside your comfort zone? Start there.
“I want to eat more healthy”, might be adding in one vegetable to one meal next week. Do that consistently for a few weeks. Gain confidence and be consistent, and then add two vegetables. By the end of the year, you would be eating multiple vegetables per week and would have a completely different diet.
Changing your behavior or accomplishing a life goal should start with the smallest amount of effort. If the effort is too great, 99% of people eventually quit. I’m not saying they will quit immediately, but look at New Year’s Resolutions. Studies show that only about 10% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions are still following them at the end of the year. That’s a 90% failure rate. If you’re a part of the 10% who follow through, great, you’re in rare air.
I am not saying to not make big plans or set major goals, what I am saying is set the smallest goal that you can accomplish and do that over and over again. Stacking up small victories over and over will eventually lead to bigger and bigger accomplishments. Your confidence inevitably increases, slowly and surely you are making steps closer and closer to your own Mount Everest. With the Everest analogy intact…It might start with run/walking your first 5k. Then you go on a 5 mile hike. Next thing you know, you’re biking for 25 miles. Then you are running a 10k. The next thing you’re doing is camping in the mountains for a couple of nights, and then you’re climbing a regional mountain. Suddenly, you meet people who have climbed big mountains before and you’re invited to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Then you meet the people who invite you to base camp for Mount Everest. And then, 15 years later, you summit the mountain of your dreams. Not 15 minutes later, not 15 days later, not 15 weeks later, not 15 months later, but 15 years. These things take time. Change that lasts takes time. Change that matters, takes time. Please stop rushing around and making impulsive choices and spending money on quick fixes. Make infinitesimally small steps each day. Notice how you are behaving, each moment. Are you moving in the direction you want to go? If not, make a shift and then follow that, forever.
