Change One Thing

 

This week the workers came to start on a complete exterior renovation of my 45 year old home. Yay!!! They arrive at 7:30 am in the morning and work until 3:30 pm. Not unusual hours for construction workers, especially in the summer but this schedule has done something for me that has given me a really big “aha”.

I have a confession to make folks. I regularly get out of bed around 7 am but unless I have to go in early to work, which is only two days out of the week, I rarely get into the shower and get dressed before 10 am.

Now I can just hear the scornful comments from you readers out there. Shame on her you are saying. But before you bring out the thumbscrews of harsh opinion, do know that while I may be spending my mornings in my PJ’s, I am still being productive….or so I thought.

Having a work crew here bright and early this last week has forced me to be up and dressed by 7:30 am all week long and what I learned from that is by changing that one small thing in my daily life it has created big changes in my productivity.

The simple change of starting my day off dressed and ready to go, even if I had no plans to go anywhere really changed my outlook for the day. It put me in a frame of mind that empowered me to get things done and when I got things done I felt even more empowered to get even more things done such as long term planning for the year ahead which will bring me a long way forward on my personal goals and dreams.

One simple change in my daily life broke a pattern and created a new momentum.

I remember years ago when my brother was trying to quit smoking. In those days it was common to smoke in the work place. He struggled with breaking the pattern of always having a cigarette in his hand as he did his job which was to guide a large cargo ferry into dock.

He would be stationed up in a observation cab and hang his cigarette filled hand out the window as he worked. He broke the pattern by opening the opposite window and closing the one he usually had open there by interrupting the usual program of his work. One simple change, and a habit associated with his smoking addiction was broken. He hasn’t smoked in over 40 years.

The Butterfly Effect

That a butterfly flapping its wings in New Mexico can be the start of the current that causes a hurricane/typhoon in China . It may take a very long time, but the connection is real. If the butterfly had not flapped its wings at just the right point in space/time, the hurricane would not have happened.

In other words, one small action can be the initial catalyst for dramatic changes in the results.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by a goal to change something. That is a major reason dreams are never realised because we tend to look to the end results and think to ourselves, I will never get there. So we talk ourselves into thinking that the dream is too big and beyond our capacity to acquire.

Changing one thing in your life can create dramatically different and amazing results. You may decide to start a new journey and go for that dream you’ve nurtured deep inside of you. In order to make it a reality, you only have to begin with taking one step forward. The difference between that step and the step you took before it is that you changed the direction of where you plant your foot there by altering the direction of where you were headed ever so slightly.

Soon you will notice that the trajectory of your movement veers farther away from the original path. Just think where you can end up by changing that one simple thing. Where will you be that is different from where you were going after one mile or one hundred miles or when the journey is finished after one thousands miles. All because you changed just one thing.

 

Maybe reading this post is the one thing different that changes someone’s life for the better. Please share this post.