The One Degree Difference

Imagine an airplane being off course by only one degree. If this goes uncorrected, over long a long distance of say a few thousand kilometers, it could end up in a different country ! In the same way, much of what we do everyday, little as it may appear, will eventually have a great impact on the overall outcome of our lives.

On the positive side, making little improvements in our daily actions will eventually lead to significant result over time. A friend of mine once said that if we want to start jogging, all we need to do on the first day is to just wear the jogging shoes. Yes you are right, just wear them ! You do not have to go out jogging (of course, some of you will end up jogging because it would surely feel stupid just to watch TV in your jogging shoes). Then on the second day, just take five minutes to jog around the house. That's it. The next day add five more minutes and continue adding the time and distance as you go along daily. Pretty soon you will end up jogging full scale with the rest of the joggers you only watched passing by you everyday. The secret is to start small but consistently pursuing your goals by taking actions. I know so many people who started like this but are running marathons whenever they is one organized.

On the other hand, this is also how bad habits can start. As an example, ask any smoker how they started smoking. None will tell you they start smoking one pack of cigarettes per day from day one they tried cigarettes. They all start having one or two but work their way up to half a pack and pretty soon, without even realizing exactly when, they join the smokers circle full scale and even able to 'recruit' new members !

According to psychologists, if you do something continuously for twenty one days, it will become a habit. A permanent behavior pattern as psychologists would call it. As such, to marry these these two concepts,if you want to start a new habit, or master a new skill, all you need to do is to start small at first then gradually move up consistently for twenty one days. Once it has become a permanent behavior pattern, you will be on your way to mastery. This is because when an action has become a habit, it will be very difficult to stop. Once you continue doing something beyond the twenty one days, your habit will lead you to mastery.The old adage practice makes perfect comes to mind here.

Although this sound simple, there are a few things that you must be conscious of so that the one degree difference that you take on your lives do make an impact. The first is to have proper knowledge before practicing the new skill. To borrow a maxim from the golfing world, 'practice makes permanent'. Practicing the wrong swing will only make it difficult for you to correct later once it has become a permanent behavior pattern. As such, seek the right knowledge before starting anything new so that you do not have to struggle with corrections later when you are too deep into the new set of behaviors. Read at least a few articles before making changes because it might be too costly or even frustrating to reverse your behavior later. This is true either for starting something good or stopping from something bad . Do you know there are people who exercise a lot but do not get the desired result ? I am sure you have heard of body builders who died of heart attacks. That's the point I am trying to make here. Without the correct knowledge, even the effort of doing something good will produce not only undesired but in some cases the opposite outcome !

Apart from having the correct knowledge, it is also important for you to have a coach. This is so because most of time, as humans, it is not easy to spot and correct our own mistakes. It takes another person to easily notice and suggest improvements. As humans we also need the much needed encouragement to keep us going. so choose one we are comfortable working with and just take his feedback with an open mind. I find the most difficult part of having a coach is to decide at which point to 'surrender' completely to his knowledge. Sometimes, his methods can go against the knowledge you have gained from your readings. So, before getting a coach, do have a chit chat to find out if both of you are compatible because trust is the key here. If you do not trust your coach, your efforts can be as counter-productve as not having the correct knowledge.

Once you have these two areas sorted out, all you need to do is to make that little improvements, daily, consistently and continuously, and pretty soon you will start to enjoy different results in your lives !