Little Behaviors

“Change one thing and everything changes…”                                                                                       Nelson Mandela

I talk with my clients about the power of “little behaviors”. When we talk about some behavioral changes, I often take great pains to emphasize how small I want them to start. It can seem very daunting, and almost impossible to conceptualize it, when someone says “I need to change my attitude”. So, we have to start small to start to get a grip and produce some momentum

I mean first of all, congratulations on that insight. The recognition of the need for a change in    attitude is a very important insight and it should be affirmed. But where do you start? As you might have guessed from me, it changes by making tiny behavioral changes. For example, the simple thoughtfulness of sending someone we care about a random text that says “Thinking of you”, or “Love you”, may take ten seconds. It can give that person ten hours of good feeling.

A little behavior, such as doing a chore around the house for your partner when they are not expecting it, or offering to bring them a cup of coffee in the morning- these little behaviors communicate way more than we realize sometimes.

I tell my clients, “change one thing, change everything”. It is amazing how changing one little behavior communicates more than we can imagine sometimes.  Then we see that, having changed a few little behaviors, our whole attitude improves. Small behavior changes bring forth large effects.

Funny how that works.

Prayer: Lord, give us the prompts of your Spirit to make those little changes that mean so much, Amen