In the first part, we looked at the shortcomings and problems associated with the concept of taking massive action to bring about change or improvements in a certain area of our life. To recap, massive action refers to doing a lot of a particular positive activity or action to bring about drastic changes and improvement in some aspect of our life. For example, let’s say Alex is a 34 year old guy who has never really exercised in his life. He finally decides that he wants to change this and wants to become more muscular and add some bulk and definition to his body. A massive action plan to achieve this goal would require Alex to work out for 2 hours, 3-4 days a week and add a lot of protein to his diet, while cutting out junk food. While, in theory it is true that this plan would bring about the desired results in a relatively short period of time for Alex, the main problem is that Alex finds it extremely hard to make such drastic changes to his routine as his brain resists big changes and he is unable to follow this plan for more than a week or two. This is an extremely common phenomena that most of us face.
Now, let us look at an alternative approach to achieving our goals. It is not necessary or even realistic for a person who has neglected something to suddenly make big changes and then sustain them for any meaningful duration. So the alternative would be to start small. Our brain resists big changes, but a great way to trick our brain is to make the action that we desire to do very small. So small that the brain does not consider it a threat and does not put up resistance. This is the philosophy on which the concept of mini habits which I covered in a previous article is based. So in the example mentioned above instead of working out for 2 hours, 3 days a week, Alex starts with doing a minimum of 5 push-ups every day (he can do more as long as he still does the minimum of 5 push ups the next day) and not eating any junk food on Mondays, just Mondays! Now, I know what you are thinking! How the hell is this going to get the muscular body you ask? It’s too small and inconsequential to bring about any change you say. Well, I agree it is too small but it is not at all inconsequential!!
In fact it is of great significance. At this stage, what Alex is doing is building a discipline, a habit and each day he manages to complete the small task of doing 5 push ups and avoiding junk food on Mondays, he starts developing a new identity for himself, the identity of “a guy who achieves his goals”. Another great benefit of this tiny action that he takes is that whenever he does his 5 push ups he is reminded of his goal every day and as it remains at the forefront of his mind, he sometimes stops himself when he is about to reach for a bag of chips, he sometimes chooses to drink water instead of grabbing a Coke with his lunch and the more such decisions he makes, the better he feels about himself. He is on the path to where he wants to go. This gives him a feeling of motivation and builds his confidence. Now after gathering some momentum maybe after a few weeks, he makes a small change in his plan. The goal of 5 push-ups everyday changes to do 5 push-ups for 6 days and go the gym on one day. Since he has already built up a tiny habit and his brain no longer resists it as much, he takes it up a notch but not too much. Just a small change which he can handle. He has the luxury of deciding which day he goes to the gym, so he can pick the day which he finds the most convenient and on the other days the goal is still on his mind as he does the 5 push-ups. With this strategy, Alex baby steps his way to working out 2 hours at the gym, 3 times a week and also improving his diet slowly. This strategy is very slow, but builds a strong foundation and is more reliable.
Some of the main reasons it is extremely reliable are as the change is introduced gradually, it by passes the brain’s resistance to change and as the actions are taken consistently every day, it changes our identity. Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do”. So once we start exercising or working on whatever our goal is everyday albeit in small quantities at the start, it becomes a part of our identity. After a year, Alex’s identity will become that of a guy who exercises regularly and once that is established our mind becomes our ally because one of the most fundamental drives of human beings is to act in accordance with the beliefs we have of ourselves aka our identity. There are 2 great books on this topic Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg and Atomic Habits by James Clear that I would urge all of you to read, if you want to get a deeper understanding of this strategy.
Coming back to the concept of massive action, though we always associate massive action with making drastic changes and doing a lot of things in a short period of time, the concept of massive action itself can be viewed in a slightly different manner. The guy who sets a goal of working out 3 times a week and then does it for 4 weeks before quitting is way worse off than the guy who workouts out once a week for an entire year and then gradually increases it or even continues to do so for the rest of his life. In this way, the guy with the less ambitious plan has taken more massive action than the former. Doing a little bit everyday will amount to having done massive quantities of that thing over a long period of time if we aim at consistency. So if any of you have failed to make big changes and then concluded that you are incapable of doing something, try this alternative and you might find that change is not that difficult after all.
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