The Case for Making Small Changes

Don’t get me wrong, I love a grand gesture! But when it comes to behavior change, I have to admit that small shifts are where it’s at.

As a registered dietitian and personal trainer, most of the people I work with are looking to make a lasting change. Over the years, I’ve watched many do it in a sustainable way. I’ve also watched people go too big, burn out, and end up right back where they started.

The truth is, we greatly underestimate how unrealistic it is to suddenly become a completely different person overnight. We fall into the “I’ll start Monday” mentality: believing we can wake up and immediately have new habits, new discipline, new priorities that didn't exist before.

But I have good news! You actually can become a different person. Just not overnight. And if you do it right and find yourself the living, breathing version of yourself you once dreamed of, it wont' have happened overnight. It will have happened through small, incremental shifts that compounded over time.

If there’s something you want to change, here are 3 things to keep in mind:

You have to switch off autopilot.

However old you are, you’ve spent that many years developing values, filters, and habits. Your body has a lot to do every day! These formed connections and habits help you navigate life without having to learn everything again every day. Think about all the things you know! And then think about trying to un-know those things. You’d have to work awful hard.

It’s similar with forming new habits. There are things you already know or believe, and your actions are based on those beliefs. So how do you expect yourself to just start behaving differently if you haven’t changed anything going on in your mind? You have to turn off autopilot first to bring awareness to what those things are.

Think about saying something like, "I just grab a snack at night without thinking then eat it mindlessly." This is a literal example of being on autopilot! At some point, you trained yourself to do this. And now it's a habit. You believe this is part of your routine, so you behave accordingly.

Big changes are noticeable. Small ones often aren’t.

When you suddenly do something differently from what you’ve done in the past, it can be a shock to your system without you knowing it. Have you ever tried to go to the gym every day when you may have gone twice per week in the past? You might think, “sheesh, this is hard! How do people do this all the time?” You are noticing this huge change. When a change feels dramatic, your brain flags it as a threat to normalcy. And threats rarely become habits.

However, if you take that visit to the gym twice per week and add a few minutes onto your session every week, then eventually add another day, it may feel natural without you even noticing you were doing anything different. This is key, because it keeps your nervous system relaxed and not heightened with nervousness.

You are priming your body and brain to be more accepting of a new habit and if you go easy then it's no longer flagged as a threat to your equilibrium.

Small shifts allow for adjustments along the way.

If you make a bunch of big changes at once, you’re kind of stuck with it. It’s going to feel too overwhelming to change, plus you’ve already used all your energy to change everything all at once! You might as well abandon the whole thing, right?

With small changes, the stakes aren’t as high and it’s not as big of a deal to make a tweak here and there to find out what really will work for you.

Think about weight loss. Pretend the way you've decided to go about this is to cut out all carbs from your diet. What used to be a diet that consisted of a bagel, a sandwich, and pasta for meals now is eggs, a salad and zucchini lasagna. You find out you don't like this, but aren't sure where the middle ground is because you only know the two extremes. Wouldn't it be easier if you made a small change that you could evaluate individually? Treat it like an experiment!

Think of behavior changes as small doses over time. On their own, they don’t feel dramatic. But compounded? They change your habits and, eventually, your identity.

If you’re ready to stop starting over and start building something sustainable, let’s work on it together. Here's a link to my contact page.