Small Changes Can Equal Big Impact

In this podcast, I want to focus on the concept of small and simple changes in a person's life that result in tremendous outcomes. And I want to begin this podcast by relating to an experience I had just yesterday. My son-in-law is building a house, I mean, from from ground up. He's a construction manager. That's where his gifts lie.

His Skill wise. It's absolutely phenomenal what what he is able to do, so we cleared the land. You know? I I've He's had me go over and help him, you know, knock down trees, and level the land out, and then put in the plumbing, lay the foundation. Now we're the framing is up, and we're we're working on the framing right now.

But I had an experience yesterday that I want to tell you about. So when you're doing framing, he he has a, big compressor and a nail gun. The gun weighs about, I would say, 8 to £10. I mean, it's pretty heavy, so you have to get up on a ladder. We're we're doing the framing all in the house, and he's just doing it.

You know? Like, he gets up and bop bop bop bop bop, nails in the boards and is attaching them all together. This is not really my skill set, nor do I enjoy doing this stuff. I really love being with him. That's why I wanna go over and help him to show my support, but it's like the running joke in my house is and all my kids, if I even try to hang a picture on the wall, it's it's like even, you know, finding a stud in in the wall is is a joke.

Because usually there'll be about 5, 6, 7 holes in the wall before I find a stud to even hang a picture. Anyway, So he kept asking me, So you want to do this? You want to do this? Here. Here's the gun.

I go, No, no, no. That's okay. That's okay. I'll just Hand you boards and stabilize things while you can do your thing. And then they could tell after a while he was getting tired, and so he kept saying, sure you don't wanna do that.

See, he's going up and down the ladder, up and I go, okay. Yeah. I got this. So he gives me the gun, I go up, and I've been observing and watching him. And then I get the gun, you know, and and a couple nails go in, chink chink, and and then I then I hit it again and nothing happens.

And I pull the trigger again and nothing happens, pull the trigger again and nothing happens. And after doing that for a while, sporadically having the gun shoot a nail. You know, I just go, what's going on? Why can't why isn't this working? And in one particular moment, I mean, my daughter was over there at the time, and, and she just starts busting up laughing.

She says, that is the brewing curse. It's it's like whenever you try to do anything mechanical or or construction wise, it's just not gonna work. I go, look. Okay. Look.

So I have the gun. I'm putting it up against, you know, the boards and firing the trigger, but nothing's happened. My son-in-law comes and looks and looks, and And then he I said, here, you do it. And then so he gets up on the ladder and does it, and bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, and everything's working perfectly. And I go, give me that gun.

So I get up and I Put it up and push it against the the board and pull the trigger, nothing happens. And my daughter's just busting up laughing, just busting up. And my son in law's looking at me, and he's totally bewildered. He's going, I can't see anything that you're doing different. And I'm trying harder, and I pull it back and push it again and pull the trigger and pull the trigger and nothing happens.

After a few minutes, he comes up and he he just really slows down and he watches exactly what I'm doing. And he says And this is him. This is what I mean in in in trying to trying to, talk about someone who has a specific skill set that can change the world, change activities by one little shift. And he says, ah, this is what you're doing. He says, you keep your hand on the trigger just a little bit, and you have to release the trigger completely and release the pressure that you put on the nail gun when you push it against the board.

And I go, oh. And so I tried that. Totally released that trigger and and so it reset. And sure enough, bap, bap, bap, bap, and it works perfectly. And it reminds me of a Statement by the author James Clear in his, quite famous book now.

A lot of people talk about it. It's called Atomic Habits. And in that book, he makes a statement about goals. He says, We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.

It's a really interesting concept to think about. So everyone has a goal, you know, like accomplishing a specific thing, but few people actually accomplish what they set out to do. And his purpose in making that statement is that, yeah, it we need to have a goal, we need to set our standards, but it's the systems, it's the small and simple things that we're doing on a daily basis that can either make that goal become a reality, or we can just still keep spinning, our wheels in the mud, so to speak. And as I go back and look at, what I was trying to do in building, I was completely frustrated. I could not see what I was doing wrong, trying to get that nail gun to work.

And it was a teeny, teeny small adjustment. I mean, I'd never done a nail gun before like that, And so the idea of completely I didn't even notice that I had I was just holding the gun because it's really heavy to hold as I'm standing on a ladder, You know? And and so I just had a teeny bit of pressure on the trigger. And until I released that and reset the gun, it wouldn't work. And after I did it, it worked every single time.

And so I I am anyway, I'm becoming a builder. Not really. It's not my at this stage of life. Right? I'm I'm going on 65 years old, and it's like, sheesh, I'm glad I don't do this for a living.

But it's it was an amazing experience to me. And as I reflected on that concept, by small and simple means, great things can be brought to pass. And so I would ask you, in your life, do you have specific goals that you've been trying to reach and don't find the the results that you're looking for, Ask yourself the question, what could be getting in my way? Seek feedback from other people. One of the most challenging things that we as humans deal with is we don't like to feel criticized.

We don't like to feel like we're not doing something good enough. And so that keeps a lot of us away from seeking feedback because we take it in affront to ourselves. We we already are struggling with self esteem issues, and so you just don't wanna ask. You're afraid anyway, like I said, you're afraid you're gonna be criticized. But until you can take feedback, until you can go find someone who you admire in whatever you're trying to achieve that they and if they've already achieved it, seek out what they're doing.

Look at what they're doing, ask for feedback, ask for help, and you can receive great benefit from that. Don't be afraid of that. None of us nobody has all the answers. We're all just trying to do the best we can, 1 little moment at a time. But as we continue through life, we continue in the process of time to emerge to become better, take an honest moral inventory and ask yourself, where am I right now?

What is the truth about myself? What do I need to correct? And if you haven't found the answers yet, continue to search. Continue to ask. Don't be afraid to do that.

So anyway, you know, perhaps in wrapping up this Podcasts, look at where you're at in your particular situation in life. If it's a career you're, kinda struggling with or if one of your children or whatever it might be, find some resources that that can help you, get to the next level because all that's constant in life is movement and change. Change is nature's delight. It never stops. Every relationship we have is changing moment by moment.

Every interaction you have is significant. So if you're kind of stuck in a rut in any particular area in your life. Look for answers. Look for feedback that can help you move to the next level. And it really might be only a small and simple, little adjustment, and your life can can be transformed in a positive direction.