Big Little Practice #1: 7 “Big Little Practices” That Will Transform Your Health

My mentor often told me, “The little things are the big things.”

As we look toward a new season of the year, I think this statement is more important than ever.

Autumn is often the time of the year when people start getting serious about getting back on track with healthy living.

However, I find that a mistake many make is focusing too much on the big things, when in reality your best bet is to focus on the little things.

This is so important that over the next several weeks, I’m going to share one “Big Little Practice” a week that you can implement – something that looks “little,” but is actually quite big.

In no particular order, to kick us off, here’s the first “Big Little Practice”.

Big Little Practice #1: Build on Your Strengths

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at a retreat for women actors.

At the end of my session, I placed blank notecards on their tables and asked them to grab a notecard and anonymously tell me one thing they’re taking away from my workshop and leave it on the table for me to collect afterward.

During the workshop, I shared a lot of important things to these performers, about how self-care was the key to peak performance.

From everything I talked about, the most common takeaway that was written down on their notecards was the importance of building on your strengths as opposed to trying to fix your weaknesses.

This is hard though, right?

I think our tendency is often to try to fix, solve, or repair areas of our health that aren’t going right.

For example, when it comes to Sleep, Nutrition, Stress Management (Mood), and Exercise, instead of focusing on getting even better at the area that you’re doing the best in, we tend to put our attention on the area that we’re doing the worst in.

I understand; it seems counterintuitive to improve something that’s already going well.

But when you understand that Sleep, Nutrition, Stress Management (Mood), and Exercise are all connected, you get why building your strengths is the best use of your time, energy, and effort.

Here’s why.

First of all, because Sleep, Nutrition, Stress Management, and Exercise are all connected, when you improve one, you improve the others.

For example, when you get a good night’s sleep, you’re likely to make healthier food choices that day, be in a better mood, and feel like exercising.

Now, it works the other way as well: When you don’t get a good night’s sleep, you’re more likely to go after unhealthy foods, be irritable or make mistakes at work, and you’re less likely to feel like moving your body.

I just used the example of a good or bad night’s sleep, but you can substitute in any of the four areas, because again, they’re all connected.

So then, when you understand that they’re all connected, you can see why (going back to the example of a good night’s sleep), making something that’s going well already even better, is likely to improve the other three areas.

A way you can do this is to determine which area is going the best.

Let’s take Exercise as an example.

Let’s say you’re currently exercising two days a week and (compared to the other three) that’s the area that’s going the best for you.

In order to build on this strength, what you might consider is to either add one more day a week of exercise (so now you’re working out three times a week instead of two) or increase the duration or intensity of your current workouts that you already do twice a week.

So, let’s say you increased the intensity of your workouts – you pushed yourself a little harder than you usually do.

This might mean lifting heavier weights or increasing the incline or speed on the treadmill, for example.

This new “Big Little Practice” could lead to you getting better sleep that night.

Improving the quality or quantity of your sleep that night leads to better food choices the next day and a better mood.

Not to mention, you might just find yourself ready to increase the quality or quantity of the area you’re already doing well in – Exercise.

And with that, we’ve come full circle and you can see how these areas play off each other.

So, this week, your “Big Little Practice” call-to-action is to think about which area you’re doing the best in (or what’s “best of the worst”) and determine how you can build on that strength.

In other words, how can you make this area even stronger than it already is?

This is the best way to set yourself up for success and it’s the way you build healthy habits over time.

Remember, the little things are the big things.

Instead of trying to fix your weaknesses, try building on your strengths this week.

It’s your turn to take care of you,

 

 

 

It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You!

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