On Tipping Points and the “Law of Incremental”
Small Steps to Big Changes
A good friend has a term for a dynamic in her life that helps her stay focused on things she knows are good for her. She calls it “the law of incremental”—taking small, steady steps on her health journey. Specifically, she started taking a Pilates class many years ago, once a week. Her primary exercise is hiking in the mountains around Colorado Springs, where she lives. She felt that Pilates, which is more strength oriented, would be a good complement to the aerobic benefits of hiking and walking.
She didn’t have a specific goal in mind, rather it was more of a hunch that she would benefit from taking a Pilates class. It was as much “soul” as “science.” At first it was hard, but over time she grew to like it. Over the years she has kept up this practice and steadily increased her body strength. Her hiking has benefitted from this, and her Pilates has benefited from the aerobic effects of her walking. Now, 15 years later, she finds herself strong and healthy in her sixties, stronger than if she just walked, simply by following her instincts and doing the work every week. With her extra strength and energy, she also now takes Pilates twice a week. Her steady practice, the journey of small steps, produced a goal she couldn’t have anticipated when she started.
It may seem daunting to start a new health routine, whether it is related to nutrition or movement. As I’ve written about and experienced myself in the post Overcoming Resistance and Inertia, we typically meet these changes with lots of inner resistance. The slow and steady aspects of any health changes are simply the way our bodies work. They will respond to change, but not instantly. There are no quick fixes. Anyone who has been on a diet knows the real challenge to shedding pounds (or kilos) is eating less and moving more every day. We live in an age in which, if we can’t accomplish something right away, we sometimes judge ourselves too harshly and feel like we failed before giving ourselves enough time to see the results. We need, instead, to encourage our small steps, and our inner hunches, on a bigger journey with results that may not be what we anticipated.
This also brings me to a bigger point about our peculiar experience of life in this modern digital age. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a fascinating book, called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, in which he explores how nature and life don’t operate arithmetically in the small scale. For example, water temperature increases or decreases degree by degree until, voila, it boils or freezes, and completely changes its form into steam or ice. When we learn something, say a new language, we start by learning word by word, grammar rule by grammar rule, as we practice speaking and understanding. But then one day, again voila, it all comes together, and we feel more comfortably fluent.
This same concept applies to our health. Removing toxic, processed food from your diet starts a cascade of inner changes that allows your immune system to strengthen, over time, and work on a deeper level than when it was solely focused on the hard work of keeping up with the junk food. Likewise, starting a movement or exercise activity and keeping at it every day strengthens your muscles and bones and promotes better circulation, which in turn keeps your organs, bones, muscles, and brain healthy. Biology doesn’t work on a clock. It has its own rhythm in each of us.
In my case, after a period of steadily and incrementally doing both these things, better diet and more movement, I looked back and said to myself, “I’m really glad I’ve been doing this. I feel like a very different person, and my health has improved dramatically.” And a big, unanticipated result was that I liked myself more this way and found that I enjoyed caring for myself. Another voila moment!
Same in the Other Direction
We can apply the same idea in reverse when it comes to illness. No one can say for sure when a cancer or arterial plaque begins. In the normal course of things our immune systems clear the first pack of diseased cells before they can spread and become dangerous. But if our immune systems are compromised and overworked—which increasingly points to not enough movement, too much stress, and a poor diet “rich” in salt, processed fat and carbs, and sugar—the steady maintenance that our immune systems conduct daily doesn’t happen as effectively. The cancer or other threat begins to grow and gain momentum. By this point, it has reached a kind of tipping point of its own. It is out of the realm of prevention, has a foothold of its own, and enters the realm of being a medical condition that needs treatment. Once this happens, modern medicine takes over, and it sometimes becomes too late to practice the kind of prevention that would have kept the threat harmless to begin with.
So, be aware of small, incremental steps you can take and the possibilities that lie on the path in either direction, toward good health or toward a potentially serious medical condition. Tipping points are everywhere. They are changes in dynamics, sometimes planned and mostly not, brought about by the steady, incremental steps we take, often begun as hunches or inspiration. The choice is yours whether to take those steps to protect your health or to damage it.
