The Butterfly Effect – Small Steps to Big Change
I am undertaking a ninety-one day (13 Full Weeks) experiment starting today to make real changes in my life. In the spirit of applying those concepts that I know to be effective in my head, as a part of my everyday life, I will document my goals and journal them with the intent to share them as part of an ebook for everyone to download here.
I'm doing this because I believe that those who try to make life better for everyone else without first learning to control and improve their own life, typically fail at making the world a better place. In fact you just might wind up f'ing up anyone you try to help because you don't know what you're doing. Since my primary goal in life is to help others find and develop their own passions, I must first learn to develop my own. Be the change we want to see in the world, as Gandhi eloquently taught.
I believe that great change can occur by the repeated application of small steps. This is why I like the analogy of the Butterfly Effect. For those not familiar, this is the Chaos Theory concept where the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Buffalo (yes, we have butteflies), for example, might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that will ultimately alter the path of a tornado or cause a tsunami in the Pacific. Small steps creating big change.
So, my life becomes an experiment for the next ninety-one days, where I try to change my reality via small steps. I have four primary goals right now. I fear that four may stretch me a bit thin, but as I said, this is an experiment and so I have no idea whether it will be successful or not. My failure may mean that I misapplied the concept. My success may only prove that this concept worked for me at the very least, and can hopefully help out some of the readers here.
Goals
1. Health – Lose 25 lbs in the next 91 days just by making small changes to my exercise (Currently non-existent) and diet (mmmm….donuts) and feel healthier, more balanced.
2. Declutter – Build a Zen-like writing studio and cleaner home by making small steps to remove clutter.
3. Writing - Build my blog readership to over a hundred daily readers (just starting this blogging thing).
4. Finance – Get my finances under control now that the babies will be coming home soon and we are down to one salary.
Bonus – I've always wanted to write a book and as a logical completion to this exercise, I will complete one entitled The Butterfly Effect – A Practical Experiment.
I believe that the Butterfly Effect will allow me to concentrate on more than one goal at a time, with success, and that's really what I am trying to prove. This experiment is for those who don't have the patience to see through just one goal at a time. While I do believe that concentration and focus on a single goal has merits, I also think that doing so at the expense of the other areas of your life can lead you to an unbalanced and unhappy life.
By my not-so-scientific count, this will take me to November 16th, 2009 for the completion of my experiment. Each Monday I will report the steps I have taken and the progress I have made.
As today is the first Monday, I've selected the following Butterfly Effect concepts to implement into my life.
1. Health Butterfly Effect - Implement two Butterfly Effect concepts. First, drink one large glass of water five minutes before each meal. Second, perform five minutes or more of Lumberjack Yoga each day.
2. Declutter Butterfly Effect - Remove/Recycle two items per day from my personal possessions.
3. Blogging Butterfly Effect – Leave one valuable comment (at least three paragraphs) on another blogger's article each day.
4. Finance Butterfly Effect - Write down every penny that I spend.
5. Bonus Butterfly Effect - Document all of it! If it is worthy of a book or article, I need to write it down.
Wish me luck, and if you guys have any other small tips that I can implement to help me achieve my goals, please share.
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Comments on The Butterfly Effect – Small Steps to Big Change
3:56 pm
Charley,
This is a great way to work on goals. I'm one of those people who always has to jump in with both feet and all too often I bite off more than I can chew and end up failing. I especially like the one about leaving comments on other people's blogs. I've started doing that and I find that I'm really enjoying reading everyone's thoughts and getting other people's perspectives. I'd much rather read blogs about people changing their lives than the same old boring negative news day after day.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out.
6:42 am
Charley, I'm another who has to have more than one goal or life starts feeling too narrow to hold all of me. I've found that it can work to have more than one goal–but I have to be really careful not to overstretch my resources.
I learned to watch for the feeling of pressure. I used to think that feeling pressured was essentially benign–so many people feel it that it's easy to think of it as no big deal. But I discovered that really it's a red light. If that red light goes on, the most important thing I can do is to take a look at what I've taken on, and cut back.
Some time ago a little proverb popped into my mind which has helped me to keep things more manageable: "keep the gains and add a little". That reminds me a bit of your 'small steps'.
I'll be interested to hear more about what you're discovering in your Butterfly Effect project as time goes on.
Kye
6:44 am
@Lori Enos: Lori, I love your comment "I'd much rather read blogs about people changing their lives than the same old boring negative news" –me too!
Kye
1:32 pm
Really good approach, Charley. You've laid out what you want to do and how you want to do it. And the small daily steps sound like very manageable ways to achieve big change.
Tracking expenditures is often a first step to get a better handle on your finances. From what I've read, the results are often a revelation. Who know that he was frittering away so much money on grande vanilla lattes or whatever? I think the same principle applies to health. That's why I weight myself every morning. I know what I ate the day before and how much exercise I got. The scale shows me the result.