The Butterfly Effect

Each year, when January 1^st rolls around, people resolve to stop smoking, start exercising, get more sleep, get more done, stop procrastinating, eat more vegetables, and (insert your favorite perennial goal here).

And, here we are in December again, racing around (or maybe not?) with Xmas stress, getting “just this last thing” done.

What if this New Year, you just don’t give up? What if you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions until they become positive habits, and then become an even better version of YOU.

Regular training (carrying out your resolution) leads to changes in the parts of the brain that are challenged by the training. The brain adapts to these challenges by rewiring itself in ways that increase its ability to carry out the functions required by the challenges.

But the cognitive and physical changes caused by training require upkeep. Become irregular or stop training all together, and they start to go away.

The reason that most people don’t possess extraordinary capabilities isn’t because they don’t have the capacity for them, but rather because they are satisfied to live in the comfortable rut of homeostasis (same ol’ same ol’), and never do the work that is required to get out of it. They live in the ho-hum world of “adequate”. We learn enough to get by in our day-to-day lives, but once we reach that point, we seldom push to go beyond ‘good enough’. We do very little that challenges our brains to develop new gray matter or to rewire entire sections.

It’s comfortable that way.

Doing the same thing over and over again in exactly the same way is not a recipe for improvement; it is a recipe for stagnation and gradual decline. Unless you are doing things specifically designed to improve, trying harder will not get you very far. Willpower will drift away.

Yet it’s important to remember that the option exists. If you wish to become significantly better at something, you can. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, never give up. Do you want to become really good at golf or tennis? Find a coach, do what he says, and practice a lot. Never give up.

The goal is not just to reach your potential, but to build and extend it, to make things possible that were not possible before. This requires challenging homeostasis – getting out of your comfort zone - and forcing your brain and your body to adapt.

Remember the Butterfly Effect, which is the idea, that small causes may have large effects.

Get out there and beat with your wings. Just don’t stop.

Reading Suggestion:  ‘Peak’ by K. Anders Ericsson