[2021-06-21] Tiny improvements
When my kids were young, I bought the first volume in the Harry Potter series, thinking it would be a great story to read with them. But whenever I asked them whether they wanted me to start the book, they said, "Nah." So one day, when we were driving somewhere as a family, I took the book along with me in the car and simply started reading it out loud. The kids said nothing. I wasn't even sure they were listening. But when we reached our destination and I closed the book, they exclaimed: "Don't stop reading!" They were hooked.
Fast forward 20 years and my reading to the kids has been replaced by audiobooks―in my son's case at least. Shane now listens to audiobooks during his morning walk and while working out. We're both currently listening to James Clear's Atomic Habits. Before that, he listened to How to Win Friends and Influence People and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I had encouraged him to read the former by sharing the quotes I had taken down from the book. And a friend had given him the latter years ago. Similarly, I gave Shane a hard copy of Atomic Habits at Christmas. But sitting down to read a book, or even excerpts from a book, when he had other things to occupy his time was not happening for Shane. Audiobooks were the gamechanger, being easily integrated into his current activities. Go for a walk, listen to a book.
This building of new habits by tying something novel (audiobooks) to an existing routine (walking or working out) is an important principle in Atomic Habits, which Shane and I both love, even just a few chapters in. Author James Clear describes the book as an operating manual for building better habits―not for days and weeks, but for a lifetime. He writes:
Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
Meanwhile, improving by 1 percent isn't particularly notable―sometimes it isn't even noticeable―but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding.
In listening to Atomic Habits this morning, I was reminded of a tiny change I made years ago that compounded over time. In my mid-30s, I developed recurring infections in my left breast. Multiple rounds of antibiotics gave way to multiple rounds of surgery before the problem was finally resolved. At the beginning of my months'-long ordeal, however, I didn't understand the cause or the solution, so I looked for guidance wherever I could find it. I read some advice about breast health, which suggested that I decrease intake of red meat (no problem, I can do that), eliminate caffeine (done), and reduce consumption of sugar (oh no, but I love sugar). Cutting down on sugar would not be easy, I knew, but the daily symptoms of my persistent breast infections made it easier to stick with my new low-sugar approach to eating.
I had no weight loss goal in mind and probably would have given up had that been my objective because the change that ensued was so gradual. Over the course of a year and a half, I went from about 155 pounds to 125 pounds, largely from one small change: reducing my intake of sugar. I did little things such as foregoing the ubiquitous candy and timbits around the office, taking only small portions of desserts at family functions, and reading nutrition fact tables on products at the grocery store to avoid hidden sugars.
I wasn't fanatical about the change. I still ate ice cream if my family went to an ice cream parlour, but chose a baby cone. I still made desserts, but reserved them for a once-a-day sweet treat. I still ate sugar-sweetened yogurt, but chose lower-sugar options. I lived by the motto "healthier choices more of the time." That principle still made room for unhealthy though delectable choices, but relegated them to the exception rather than the rule. If I ate something sweet, it had to be a 10, or it just wasn't worth it.
My new way of eating wasn't a diet to be pursued until I reached some goal, but a habit to be adhered to for my lifetime. Clear states:
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.
As Clear says, the large effect of a small change is often evident only years later. I would not have known that reading the first chapter of book one of Harry Potter would create a tradition: I went on to read the next five volumes to my kids―all except the last one, which I binged, on my own, over one intense weekend. And I would not have known that my choice to limit my sugar intake would become a permanent change with enduring results.
