By “I can’t change.”
Whoever told us success, health, wealth, or overall transformation came in big, sweeping motions tricked us. They fully tricked us. As someone who has studied discipline for almost a decade, I can tell you it’s smaller than that. So much smaller.
You want to overhaul your existence at least a few times a year, and most of the time, it’s all hinging on a single baby step forward.
For a long time, I had this story in my mind: if I wanted to change, the change had to be drastic. It had to be a complete 180 in a matter of 24 hours.
Maybe that’s you, too.
If you’re going to run, it has to be a marathon.
If you’re going to clean up your diet, you have to do a Whole30.
If you’re going to get in shape, you must go to the gym every day– starting immediately.
If you want to read your bible more, you must read it in a year.
These all-or-nothing mentalities work for some people, but that percentage is slim. Most of us go hard in the paint for a week or two and then taper off. It’s another promise we made to ourselves that we couldn’t keep. And it’s no wonder our subconscious feels weary and defeated. Imagine if you were making that promise to a person sitting across from you and not yourself. How would they think if you kept breaking the promises and not showing up? How would they feel if you kept starting repeatedly but could never cross the finish line?
I pray for a life where you keep promises to yourself. Where you set out to transform, and you see actual, beautiful results unfolding. The problem with our culture is that we talk about transformation as this dramatic thing. We see it unfold perfectly in 30 minutes on our favorite television shows. We watch 60-second videos where someone manages to lose all the weight as some trendy audio plays in the background, and we shame ourselves for not having the same grand transformation.
But any one of those transformation stories wasn’t instant or overnight. They rarely ever are. There is a struggle you don’t see. There is discipline being built behind the scenes. There is doubt and fear. There are victories and tiny milestones. An internal journey is happening just as much as an external one is playing out before you.
And I’ll let you in on the secret to any transformation. The golden rule: It starts small. So small. If the motion is so small that you’re tempted to say it won’t move the needle, good– you’ve picked the right motion. Start with the smallest promise you could keep to yourself without breaking it- build from there.
If you’re going to run, start with running for one minute. Just one.
If you’re going to clean up your diet, add in one vegetable somewhere into the day. Just one.
If you’re going to get in shape, do a 10-minute workout at home this week. Just one.
If you want to read your bible more, start with one chapter. Just one– Genesis or Matthew.
I can promise you- that’s where change begins. In the small stuff this culture is tempted to discount, you will find your transformation.