Small Decisions Can Lead to Big Changes

But for them to do so, you first have to commit

When I started my blog back in 2015, I never thought it would have the ability to change my life. I simply wanted to express my feelings on travel and provide myself with a creative outlet.

Fast forward to 2019, and I am self-employed courtesy of the funds I make from my blog. This was a fantasy when I started the blog three years ago. Even as recently as June 2017, it was still a fantasy, as I was struggling to make money and grow my blog.

If I had expected the results to be immediate, I would have quit a long time ago. I had to play the waiting game to get where I am now, and I still have a long way to go too.

Small decisions can have a drastic impact on your life, even though you may not realise it at the time. You may not realise it even six months later, but at some point, it will become clear just how important those decisions were!

Just Give It a Go

Decisions are not easy to make. Every day, we all have to make a number of decisions.

What should I eat for breakfast?

What clothes should I wear?

Should I walk to work or take the metro?

These are all rudimentary decisions that we make on autopilot, but due to the frequency and repetitive nature of them, we grow tired of making them.

Then, when we have to make a decision that has real consequences, we freeze and overthink the situation, leading to paralysis. A good friend of mine calls this decision fatigue. We are simply tired of making decisions, and when we’re faced with one that is important, we regress into our shells and put it off.

When I first thought about starting a blog, I was unsure. I had plenty of reasons to start the blog, but I also had plenty of reasons to not start the blog.

What if my friends read it and think it’s stupid?

It’s a lot of money to buy a domain!

Do I really want to write every other day?

All these thoughts flashed through my mind and led me to put the decision off for a week or two. I couldn’t decide what to do. I was conflicted.

Eventually, I decided I should just give it a go. I had more to gain than I had to lose. And here I am today, nearly three years later, still writing.

It may have been a seemingly small decision at the time, but it has had a huge impact on my life.

The Stability Myth

Change is a word a lot of us are afraid of. As humans, we are lulled into thinking stability is what we need to pursue in life.

I refer to this as the stability myth.

There is no such thing as stability. The only constant in life is that things will change. This is why a lot of people neglect to make small changes that can have a big impact on their lives.

The changes may be small, but they could have huge ramifications.

Quitting your job and going it alone can seem scary, so most people stick with their jobs in the misguided belief that they are stable.

But what happens if your boss decides you’re not up to the job and fires you? What happens if the company you’re working for goes bust?

These are all potential outcomes.

The stability myth leads to people becoming complacent. They avoid or choose not to make the decisions that could transform their lives. Whether it’s starting a blog or putting aside a bit of money every month to save for something, we are afraid of making these decisions.

We shouldn’t be.

The potential rewards outweigh the fears in our minds, which a lot of times are just fabrications and self-limiting beliefs.

Decide First

Whatever the decision is, it could have a huge impact on your life. We have a habit of giving up on things if we don’t see an instant result.

But this is not how things work. Overnight successes are only deemed so because we don’t see the work that goes on behind the scenes.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes there are overnight successes, but they are a rarity. More often than not, this success is the result of a snowballing of momentum that has been built up over time. Simply making the decision is the first step, but sticking with it through the times you want to quit is how to turn it into a success.

In my case, I was never going to go from zero page views to 20,000 straight away.

I had to put lots of work in behind the scenes to get to where I am today. I aimed to become 1% better than I was previously.

Eventually, my blog began to grow. The small decision that I was unsure of, and constantly doubted whether I should have made, came to be a life-changing decision.

Whether you want to join the gym, talk to that cute girl/guy on the bus, or simply start reading more books, you have to make the decision first.

This is key.

Don’t doubt yourself, and don’t worry if it’s a good idea. Just do it.

When you look back in a few months, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to make the decision!