The podcast episode discusses the concept of making tiny changes that can lead to significant results. The host refers to James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, and explains how small daily improvements can have a huge impact over time. They give examples of implementing tiny changes in various areas such as meditation, reading, and transitioning to a vegan diet. The host also emphasizes the importance of having systems in place to support goals, and highlights the negative consequences of not having a system. Lastly, they discuss the plateau of latent potential, using an ice cube analogy to explain how gradual changes can unlock hidden potential.
Hello, hi, welcome to the sixth installment of the Dirtbag Podcast with me, your host, the podcast where we focus on holistic personal and professional success by growing and developing the common denominator to all your successes, all your failures, and everything in between, you. It's about the mindset, emotional regulation, and the intentional personal development that underpins holistic success. Today's topic is informed by James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, one of my all-time favorites, and I honestly think one can never really exhaust the content of that book by talking about it, which is why I highly recommend that everyone read it at least once.
But each time one does talk about it, or each time that I do choose to talk about it, it has so much value to add, and the angle that we are taking today is how tiny habits or tiny changes can lead to nuclear results. So today's topic is tiny changes, nuclear results. There are four illustrations or four subjects or four ways in which James makes this point very clear to me in the book. And as we're approaching the end of the year, I'm starting to get requests to speak in matters involving vision boarding, in matters involving planning for the new year, in matters involving the way I pick a theme for the year, in matters involving really planning for the future.
The end of the year has that effect on everybody, on all of us. We start to think about what we've done with the particular year that's ending, and we also start to think about what we're going to do with the new year that's coming. I am indisposed right now. You should have seen the comedy of errors that was attempting to record this from my bed. So now I'm perched on the corner of the bed, and I'm doing my best to get what I need to get out in a very efficient amount of time before I lose my breath.
So the four big ideas that make tiny changes such an impactful thing, the four things that make tiny changes a matter of nuclear importance are this. Number one, understanding the math. One percent is all you need to improve by daily in order to be 37 percent better by the end of the year. When we think of change, we like to dramatize it in our heads. We like to exaggerate it. We like to think of something excessive in line with the modern culture.
But in truth, all you need is a small change on a day-to-day basis to make what is effectively a nuclear change by the end of the year. So if, for example, you wanted to start meditating 30 minutes a day, you do not start by meditating 30 minutes a day. You don't go from zero to 100. You have not built the systems. You have not built the ability, the stamina, or even the discipline to do it like that.
You don't just switch from one version of yourself to another overnight. But you can practice and train to become this person. And what James Clear found in his research was it is far more effective to think the goal is that I would like to meditate for 30 minutes a day by the end of the year. Where do I start now? And you start by meditating for one minute every day. One minute. So doable. You meditate by one minute.
And slowly, as you get used to it, first you get used to the idea of meditating every day. Then you get used to the idea of meditating for two minutes every day. And two minutes becomes easy, and then you make it three minutes a day. And so it goes, and so it goes, until you reach your 30-minute goal. That little change leads to a difference, a dramatic difference, at the end of the measuring period, at the end of the year.
The same goes for reading. You don't go from not reading at all to reading 20 books a year, or reading 20 books a month. You start by reading a little. You start by reading a couple of pages a day. It's an easy commitment. It's easy. It's attractive. That's a different aspect of the book that we'll talk about in another chapter, the system itself. But really, what I want to talk about now is understanding that what you're looking at changing is not implementing the nuclear change.
It's by implementing a tiny change that then results in a nuclear result. Let's say you want to go vegan, for example. You do not start by cutting out all meat all at once, and then the suffering, withdrawal, et cetera, et cetera. What you do is you start out by, or rather, the change is more sustainable if you start out by introducing a portion of vegetables to every meal. If you start out by learning how to make the vegetables that you like in a particularly delicious way, and then you add a little more, you substitute the meat product for more of the veg as you go along, and go along, and go along.
Before you know it, pop and morocco becomes your favorite versus pop and steak. That is how a slight change results in a big change over time, and this applies across the board. It could even be healing. Think of it in the context maybe of a divorce or a heartbreak. Instead of saying, as of tomorrow, I'll never think about this person again, no. Start by, as of tomorrow, I will not dwell on the thought if it comes.
If a thought comes about that person, you promise yourself that you will not dwell on it, that you will immediately play a song that you like and move on from there. That's how it works. Then it starts to happen habitually, then over time your brain starts to adjust by itself to think about something else, to do something else, to try other things. That's how tiny changes become the steps to achieving what would ordinarily look like an unattainable result.
Then number two, systems versus goals. Everybody has goals. Winners and losers have the exact same goals. There is nobody who wakes up and thinks, I don't want to be a millionaire. No one. We all want that. The difference is what we do in order to achieve, in other words, the system. The best way that James Clear illustrated it for me was a soccer team or a sports team of whatever sort, whatever appeals to you. Rugby is all the rage these days.
If you want to win a game, a soccer game, you do not think we want to win by 3-0 and then the 90 minutes of the game start and you look at the scoreboard for 90 minutes and wait for the goals to take over. No. You have to play the game. You have to have a strategy. You have to have a system for getting the ball from one end of the pitch into the goal. That is the difference between goals and systems.
Both are essential, but one cannot survive without the other. You can achieve the goal even if you haven't set it as long as the system is working. The system can achieve the goal without necessarily setting it, but the goal cannot achieve the system. You need to pay attention to what it is that you're putting in place to achieve the goals that you state that you want to achieve. If you're not doing that, then the likelihood of you achieving the goal would be a matter of luck or it is unlikely that you'll achieve your goal.
Then it's a question of direction. Goals are great as direction setters. They are great as saying, this is where I would like to hit. This is where I would like to go. But if the system is failing, which brings me to the next illustration that I found particularly powerful, if the system is failing, the goal is of no use to you. So think of it as a pilot taking off from Los Angeles in America. A pilot taking off from Los Angeles points his nose in the wrong direction, 3.5 degrees south by mistake.
That is a tiny difference in the context of a large plane, 3.5 degrees in the wrong direction. Then you take off. At that point, it still looks like you're going to hit New York because you're heading to New York, right? It still looks like you're going to hit New York. But what actually results is on that trajectory, that plane will land in Washington, DC, 370 kilometers or 226 miles away from the intended location. That is a massive difference.
And that is the difference that that 1% makes over the course of the year. And that 1%, here's what happens. Where your 1% is positive over the course of the year, you improve by at least 37% over the course of the year. But where that 1% is negative, so if you get 1% worse over the course of a year, you actually end up at less than zero. It's a frightening thought, but it is a daily reality for most people.
And it's very difficult for people to understand how they go from wanting to be fit, going to the gym in January, showing up for three or four days, I like to avoid the gym in January and just run outside while I wait for the craze to fall, for the craze to pass and for the systems that haven't really been truly put in place to fall by the wayside so that there's space at the gym and I don't have to wait for a machine.
This is because so many of us can be relied upon to not have a system to support the goal that we have set for ourselves. That is the impact that a system has. The goal can be big, the goal can be glorious, the goal can be beautiful, but as long as there is no system to support it, we're not achieving anything. Then finally, and I think that the last idea is particularly important for the time that we live in, because we live in a time of instant gratification.
I can feel my voice starting to fade, but let's get through this because this is important. There is something called the plateau of latent potential and the best way to illustrate the plateau of latent potential is with an ice cube. If you walk into a room freezing cold, this is also James Clear's illustration, if you walk into a room that is freezing cold and there is an ice cube sitting on the table, it will stay cold and the room is maybe, let's say, at minus 15 degrees Celsius.
As long as the temperature in that room is minus 15 degrees Celsius, that ice cube will stay in the exact same form that it is, sitting there on that table. Then you start to make a change. You increase the temperature to minus 14, and then minus 13, and then minus 12, minus 11, minus 10. You are doing this. You are making an actual change. You are raising the temperature in the room, but nothing is immediately evident as far as the ice cube is concerned.
The ice cube remains frozen, and so it goes from minus 10, minus 9, minus 8, minus 7, minus 6, minus 4, minus 3, minus 2, even at minus 1, the ice cube looks exactly the same. But then, at zero, the ice cube will suddenly turn to water. It will melt. And this is what happens with the efforts that we put in towards our goals. It seems to us that we are showing up daily, we are doing this thing, we are trying, we are trying, and we are trying, but nothing is resulting from the change that we are making.
Where is the result? And in a culture that has taught us to get an immediate result, it is very easy to get demotivated, to think that the work that we are putting in is for nothing. I'll use my running journey as an example. I remember running every day, or starting to work out every day, or starting to walk every day, or attempting to run, because when I started, it really was more of an attempt to run than an actual run, every day, from the time I was allowed to by the doctor after my first baby.
And really, nothing happened. In fact, I was just in pain, my muscles ached, and I gained more weight, it seemed to me. More than that, it just felt like I was doing a whole lot of work for nothing. And for nearly 18 months, up until my son was nearly 18 months old, there was very little change. I wasn't doing too much. I was just running 20 to 30 minutes a day, or moving 20 to 30 minutes a day.
And I was seeing very little in the way of change. I was also eating much better than I used to. I was making a better choice at lunchtime, and I was making better choices at dinnertime. But I wasn't really seeing a dramatic difference, because what I wanted was to feel and look fit. That wasn't happening. And all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, it felt like I started looking more toned, I started looking fitter, that the hill that used to be difficult for me became a little bit easier.
I was able to get up it a lot. I was able to get up it at a running pace. Let's start there. That was the beginning. And I thought, oh, when did that happen? Right? Yay. But it happened all those times when it felt like nothing was happening. When I was showing up, and it had zero difference, I remember a comment, and this is now in the context of finances, early in my career, I met a lovely woman, and she wanted to be sort of like, she wanted to be my spiritual mother.
I don't know if this is something I would need to explain, but let's just say, sort of like a spiritual mentor of sorts. And it was very important to her that I spend a lot of time with her. Now, while I appreciated the concept of a spiritual mother, it wasn't particularly important to me. What I had learned of life at that time was that if you didn't have money, and if you didn't have a fruitful career, and you were an orphan with no backup plan, then you didn't have anything.
So it was absolutely vital to me that I stay on top of my career, that I put in extra effort, that I try to distinguish myself at work as much as possible. And that meant that I put in extra hours, that meant I was always putting my hand up for things, and it meant that I had very little time on weekends, etc., for social things. So she would invite me to things, and I would politely decline often.
And then one time, she says to me, she calls me, and I was at work, and I say, Hello, Mom, how are you? And she says to me, I'm fine, but I'm irritated by this thing of you never being available. And I said, I'm really sorry about that. And she says, Where are you anyway? What are you doing? And I said, I'm focusing on making money. And her response, which was meant to cut but also was meant from a good place, if you know that generation of women, was, if you're meant to be making money, where's the money because we don't see any money on you, right? That was 10 years ago.
It hurt me, yes, but my reply was just, it will come, right? And even though I didn't speak from an informed place, I was simply giving the most polite answer I could give in that moment. That answer has turned out to be exactly true. I was in my plateau of latent potential. I was in the window of time where you need to do the work, and then the results will come much later. I was in a place where it was very easy for someone to derail me by saying, it's not as if you have anything to show for it, because it would be true.
I cannot demonstrate the results of what I am doing right now. It is not possible. But in my heart of hearts, I knew that somehow, I was making a move in the right direction, headed towards the goal that the system that I had implemented, was heading me towards the goal that I wanted to achieve. And now 10 years later, there are many things that I criticize my younger self for, but I applaud myself for that moment, because I remember feeling disheartened and heartbroken and even embarrassed because I had no money.
But I also remember immediately feeling the resolve that I would not be bullied into doing this. And our relationship ultimately didn't work out, but it is fine. It is well, I chose according to the system that I had created, that aligned with the goal that I wanted to go to. And it was not for someone else to come and move the nose of my plane by a few degrees, because I was inconveniencing the goal that they had for me.
Or to use the concept of shame, I talked about this in a recent newsletter, or to use the concept of instant gratification, to try and derail me. Now what I faced with a particular person at that time, we face with social media these days, we face with the conversations that we have, there is a narrative around self-made and instant millionaires, there is this narrative around Silicon Valley millionaires and how they seem to be made overnight, there is this narrative around, oh you can make money quickly and easily by just flipping property in the market, there is this narrative around quick money, quick resolve, getting it all done early.
I am 38, I didn't get anything done early, I didn't even figure out love early. In fact, I would say the beginning of my understanding of the concept of love was post-divorce, or during the post-process of divorce, when I realized this couldn't be it, so what is it? And I started working on that question at that time. And at 38, I am okay to figure out where to go from there now. The point is, you don't have to see immediate results.
You simply need to know that the system is gearing you and pointing you in the right direction, that all of you, your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are aligned in where you are trying to go and what the goal you are trying to achieve is, and that you are all pulling in that direction. That the results are not immediately apparent is not a reason to stop. That the results are not immediately apparent is not something that is meant to derail you.
You must understand that you are in the plateau of latent potential, something's happening, it's all there boiling under the surface. And what James Clear's research has shown, and it's not just him, multiple books have shown this, is multiple researchers who have written multiple books have demonstrated the same thing, that it is not the amount of time, it is the consistency with which you show up. If you take exercise as a simple example, think about how in the modern age, how many people still say, what is the secret to being fit? Did you do something? Did you have surgery? These are questions I hear all the time, all the time.
The truth is, there is no quick fix, and there is no complexity. It is simply a matter of showing up for 15 to 20 or 30 minutes a day, over and over and over and over. And if you can get through the valley of disappointment that is occasioned by the plateau of latent potential, if you can get it into your head that the thermometer is ticking from minus 14 to minus 13 to minus 12 to minus 11 to minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, that you're going to get to a point of zero, then you will understand that there is nothing at all overnight about overnight success, that there is nothing at all sudden about the results that you see people achieving.
Sometimes there's something to be gained by people telling you that it is sudden, that it is overnight. They distinguish themselves, they become extraordinary. But the truth is, we are all ordinary people applying different systems, using different atomic habits to get to different goals. If you can understand these four things, ahead of planning for your 2024, ahead of planning for the next five years, ahead of planning for yourself personally or for your business or even for your children, then you understand just how important it is to make changes that are tiny.
The goals can be huge. The goals can be what they are. The goals can be whatever brings your heart content. But understand that those goals must be supported by a system that facilitates 1% improvement daily. Right? So understanding that 1% improvement means 37% better at the end of the year, 137% better. It means the system and the goal are not the same thing. That you must have a system that supports the goal, that the goal, that the system will produce a goal, even if the goal is not set, but a goal will not produce the system.
You can produce a great result from a working system, but you cannot randomly produce a working system from only a goal. Understand that you're working right side up, right? Understand that you don't stand in the game and watch the scoreboard in the hope that the goal appears. You have to have a strategy. You have to have trained. You have to know how to gel as a team. You have to know where to pass the ball. You have to understand the rules.
If you're not doing that work, if you're not doing that, then the goal that you're setting for 2024 will go the way of January joggers. It's understanding that the goal provides direction. That is its great purpose. The goal provides direction. Your systems must point you in that direction. Your system must be going that way. There's one of my favorite quotes from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is working or productivity is making sure that everybody's getting up the wall and over and doing what they need to do.
Leadership is working out that the ladder is against the wrong wall. The goal is for you to understand that your ladder is against the right wall. That is what it's for. You do not want to take off in LAX and land 400 kilometers away in Washington DC and now need a new plane ticket to take you to New York, which is where you were initially headed. And finally, it's understanding that there is a plateau of latent potential between the moment you start and the moment that you see results.
There is a window in which you are working and working and working and there's no immediate result, but something is happening. There is a change happening. It's that stonemason who strikes a rock a hundred times and then seemingly cracks it all open one time with one hit. Every hit that he has made has contributed. Every hit that he has made has weakened that rock to produce that result in what seems like one hit. It's understanding that overnight success is not overnight at all.
I sincerely hope that this has been a useful episode, that it will help and contribute to the work that you need to do to plan for 2024 and to plan what you're going to do in the, in the, in the, to plan what your goals are going to be and what your systems are going to be to support those goals and to prepare your mind with the fortitude necessary to understand that one percent better doesn't immediately look like a hundred percent result, that that hundred percent result is made of one plus one plus one plus one plus one.
And every time that you show up, it's a one added to your tally and it's another one added to your tally and that's all you need. Just a little change consistently over a long period of time will result in nuclear results that will have you struggling to answer the question, how did you achieve this? Have a great week and I wish you the best of health and wealth and success. And as we go into the holiday season, I also wish you the right sort of priorities and may they align with your value system.
Have a beautiful week. If you like the podcast, please like, subscribe, share, leave a comment. I always appreciate it. I always read it. It always feeds my soul and I need to lie back down and possibly go to the doctor tomorrow to see about removing some of the tubes that I'm attached to, but this is my passion project and passion for good things, most things. Thank you. Bye.
