Incremental Changes Can Be Transformative

Want to know how to achieve your most ambitious goals?

Say you want to become a world-class artist.

Take any black and white photograph. Then make a grid on top of it. Break that grid down into very small squares. See what shade of grey is in each square. And replicate that on a canvas.

Sound like cheating? Doesn’t sound like art?

Meet Chuck Close. Until his death in 2021, he was one of the highest paid artists in the world.

And he made his art by creating these grid structures.

I recently came across a Ted Talk on YouTube that opened with the story of Chuck Close. The talk was about how to achieve your most ambitious goals. At the time of this writing it had about 13 million views.

Seems like a popular subject.

The person who gave the talk was Stephen Duneier. Stephen is a high-level international finance expert and Guinness world record holder.

He’s accomplished a lot in his life. From becoming fluent in German, to skydiving, to flying aerobatic aircraft, to learning to fly a helicopter, to racing cars, to knitting.

Yes, knitting. In fact, his world record is in knitting. He created the world’s largest ‘Granny Square’. It measured 1,311 square feet, incorporated 30 miles of yarn and weighs 60 pounds.It took 2 years, 7 months and 17 days to create, and required more than 500,000 double crochet stitches.

What does his talk have to do with healthcare?

Lots. In my opinion. He talks about how he accomplished all of these feats. He did them with very small steps at a time. He said none of them would be possible if he didn’t start with a small step.

Stop scrolling.

Put down your phone.

Turn off the TV.

Stand up from the couch.

Then take the next step to move you towards your goal.

To learn German he put German lessons on his iPod. He listened to them every day on his way to work and on his way back home.

He also deleted everything else off his iPod. Like music or other distractions.

So his choice was only to listen to German. Or listen to nothing.

He admits that when he was young, he was easily distracted. His lack of focus made him a C student until about halfway through college. Once he learned to focus on a small part of a larger task at a time, he went to straight A’s.

I couldn’t agree more. Don’t try to change your life radically all at once. If you go from eating the standard American diet to the carnivore diet in a day you will probably fail. Even if you try to do it in a week, you will probably fail.

Make small, incremental changes. If you drink three sodas a day, try drinking two sodas a day.

Once you can survive on two sodas a day, drink one soda a day.

Try Seltzer water instead of soda.

Don’t buy any soda for your home. Make it difficult to obtain your soda. Make it expensive. Only buy soda at a restaurant.

Then you will eventually think it’s not worth it. You’ll move towards your goal in steps you can achieve.

That’s why I think assisted living is such a great place to improve health. We can make those small changes for people. They don’t have to do it on their own.

If you’re interested in the Ted Talk, here it is: