I was recently making myself a post-workout burrito bowl and thought about how I used to struggle with gaining weight from lifting and how I was force feeding myself a cup of rice and a bunch of chicken strips for meals and was barely gaining any weight at all because I was rarely (if ever) hitting the 3000+cal/day that I needed to gain weight - but that was before I discovered the power of little things.
You see while I did need to eat the rice and chicken/beef/whatever once those big things are in place what I needed was to add little things to them like cheese and olive oil. When eating oatmeal I needed to add honey. When making eggs I needed to add milk and cheese.
Each one of those additions can be an easy 100+ calories that take up almost no extra stomach space.
On the flip side of this many people will fail at their goal of losing weight because they fail to pay attention to these little details. They’ll simply get the big picture items in place like eating their shredded chicken breast and then they won’t pay any attention to how many calories is added when you drizzle ranch dressing over it all.
Another example in an alternate area is how when I was in college I took it upon myself to dress nicely most days. While most of my classmates were showing up in their sweats I would put in the same level of effort to throw on some nice jeans and boots or dress shoes and then take 20 extra seconds to button up a casual shirt or at the very least throw on a watch along with a t shirt. All together it took me maybe a minute or two longer to get ready for my day but the difference it made in both my mentality of feeling sharp because i was looking sharp and being taken more seriously because I was dressed more seriously made all the difference.
Keep in mind that the little things don’t make a difference if the big things aren’t in place - obviously wearing dress shoes with sweats looks goofy but if you have the big thing in place (nice pair of jeans in this scenario) the pair of dress shoes makes all the difference in the world in how the outfit looks when compared to someone wearing sneakers.
This principles of the little things applies to:
- Eating
- Finances
- Dressing
- Working out
- Editing
- Reading for half an hour instead of watching “just one more show”
- Checking phone notifications
- Relationships - small gifts don’t fix big issues but they are a nice touch whenever you have the big picture details in place
Ultimately it’s not the small things that kill you. It’s the small things repeatedly that will. Just One cookie won’t kill you but the mentality will. Today’s workout won’t change your physique but the mentality that says you’re going to do today’s workout when applied over the course of several weeks, months, and years will.