I want to talk about something that I think many of us realize but we don’t talk about as much as we perhaps could. 

This is the impact that one fundamental change can have on everything else — or maybe a lot of things — in our lives. 

We know this academically or intellectually but I think it’s interesting that the impact of this can be tough to see in the moment. 

A pretty well-known financial example of a small investment becoming a big thing.

Usually this is done to explain the impact of compound interest BUT I’ve massively simplified that here.

A dollar doesn’t seem like much but if you put aside 1 dollar a day in a year you have 365 dollars saved. That still may not seem like a ton. But keep it up and after 3 years it’s over $1000.  Here’s a link to a credit union who shows how this adds up over more time.

A fitness example of a small thing making a big difference.

If you do 5 sit ups a day 3 days a week at the end of a year you will have done 780 sit ups. Those 5 sit ups may not feel like much but 780 sit ups will make a difference in your core strength. But you won’t see it until you’ve been doing it a while and this is also tough because you transform as you go so you don’t notice the transformation … unless you look.

A more life-y example where one party is a big change.

Maybe this is just me but when I got married I just kind of thought that it would be like it already was because we were in a relationship together. Nope … one piece of paper and a party changes a lot about our lives.

Right? But I didn’t realize it at the time … more like maybe 5 years later I realized how immense it was. 

For me this was the actual impact of doing an Ironman.

It was the biggest physical goal I had ever tackled. So big that I wasn’t sure I could do it until it was done. The initial changes to my life were all fitness based.

The bigger change to me in my life was that going after Ironman showed me that I can choose big goals and go after them and DO IT. That’s a mindset shift and it permeates every part of my life from trying new recipes to traveling alone to moving my house. 

Sometimes changing one thing really does change everything. 

Do you have a story of a small change that made a big impact on your life? 

Or maybe a story of an unexpected impact of something you did? 

I’d love to hear about it. I want to invite you into my Facebook group to share. Search on FB for Mile after Mile or there is a link in the show notes and let’s keep this conversation going.

This is the topic of this episode of the Mile after Mile Podcast if you want to give it a listen.