A useful way to think about change and energy
When it’s time for a change, we want it to happen fast.
The internet tells me I can lose five pounds in two days. That’s probably fine once in a while. But I can’t lose 50 pounds in 20 days. People aren’t built for sustained change at high speeds.
It takes energy to change.
How you expend your energy affects how likely you are to succeed at changing.
Imagine your energy comes in blocks.
You could stack up your blocks in one time segment — say a day or a week — and try to change all at once:
This kind of change is difficult and wobbly. It’s useful and necessary sometimes, but it’s not sustainable. It doesn’t work for a lot of things. Because this kind of change is wobbly, it’s more likely to end in failure without a lot of external support.
You could lay those same blocks of energy out across several time segments so that you change slowly:
This kind of change is easy and stable. It works for most things. It’s sustainable for a lifetime.
The idea of slow change isn’t as appealing as fast change. It’s not RIGHT NOW. But what happens if you zoom out?
Slow change is fairly quick when you look at it in the context of months or years or decades. Also, slow change is more likely to succeed than fast change. When you factor in success rates, slow change usually ends up being faster than fast change.
Change isn’t all fast or all slow. You can play around with different energy arrangements. The thing to keep in mind is that for sustainable change the vast majority of your energy will be spread out low and wide.
I’ve created a tool to support slow, sustainable personal growth. It’s called TREE. It’s a free email you get first thing every weekday. You can read it in 30 seconds or less. It gives you one positive thought to wake your brain up and get it pointed in a good direction. TREE lets you invest a tiny block of energy every day in your personal growth. Over time, it helps you create big change.
Get TREE for free at vellerosus.com/TREE
Important: Remember to notice your little bits of change and cheer yourself on.
Originally published at https://jqgill.com on September 17, 2020.
