Think Smaller

If you're not where you want to be in life, think smaller.

Most people are so desperate for change that they believe dramatic change is only possible by making huge decisions and massive changes.

But the thought of such a drastic shift is what actually holds them back from achieving their goals and making a change, because it seems too overwhelming.

The reality?

You need to make micro votes. Smaller, more consistent, and more frequent changes are how you see big changes.

Micro Votes

The problem with micro votes? People underestimate them.

And in underestimating them, they overlook them.

So now you have a situation where you want to change, but you’re stuck between 2 places in your mind

• Make a huge, dramatic decision (that feels like the only real way to get anything done), but feels too big to do anything about

• Or take a micro choice today to start them on the path to where they want to be

A dramatic change requires you to change. But it doesn't necessarily need to be messy or cause chaos.

I used to think that all the big changes in my life over the last 15 years or so always came from making dramatic changes. But now I see things differently.

Now I see that in the moment, it looked dramatic because it felt huge, but in reality, I was more calculated than I realized.

In 2014, I left my job of 12 years as a project manager in the UK. I was 28 when I left and had been there since I was 16.

That’s a big chunk of my teens and most of my 20s.

But in early 2014, I left.

And 7 days later, I was out of a job and unemployed. At the time, that felt like a dramatic choice. It was for sure a big thing.

The reality was that I took around 8 weeks of planning and execution on that planning to make my next move.

The move I decided on was going into university as a mature student.

For those 8 weeks leading up to the decision to leave, I made small choices and micro votes for what I wanted to do.

What felt like a dramatic change (leaving that job of 12 years) was actually 8 weeks of planning and following a process

It felt much bigger at the time because I was overlooking the micro votes I was making, and instead looking at the outcome of saying I was leaving.

For years, I assumed that choice was a huge thing.

Now looking back, it wasn’t. I knew exactly what was coming next.

A true dramatic change would have been to walk into work one day and just quit with no thought to anything afterwards.

That would have brought an intense amount of chaos pretty quickly. And there’s no guarantee things would have worked out the way they did.

Uncertainty and Confusion

Dramatic changes bring uncertainty and confusion, and most people don’t think clearly when they feel like they are already on the back foot.

But because I was making smaller choices, every day for 8 weeks, this didn’t happen at all.

The more I look back at big changes in my life, the more I see that they were less dramatic than they felt at the time.

---

Barely Counts

A good rule to think about when wanting to change is the "barely counts" rule:

What is something so small that if I did it every day, it wouldn’t feel like I was even doing anything?

Something so small that it barely counts as doing anything at all.

Before I decided to leave my old job in 2014, the first thing I did was think.

I spent time each day thinking about what to do based on everything I knew at the time.

Thinking about what to do felt like it barely counted as I knew I wanted to leave, so I was already thinking about leaving anyway.

Once I decided, I started contacting universities, applying for positions, speaking to people I knew at universities, attending interviews…

…only then did I say the word out loud: “I quit.”

That was an 8-week process of small micro votes for myself.

I was barely doing anything, yet over 8 weeks, the whole thing was quietly compounding.

Most of what you want from life starts with doing something that barely counts as doing anything at all.

Changing your life for the better is less dramatic than you think.

If it feels too big or dramatic, think smaller.

Think so small that you doubt the first thing you need to do is going to have any impact.

In my experience, that first micro vote for change is the most powerful. It sets you up to move forward.

You don’t feel it at the time, but this is where momentum is building.