The Truth Behind The Littleton Principle

Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/

Follow Dr Jason Littleton on Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/therealdoctorjason/

Watch Dr Jason Littleton on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealdoctorjason3340


Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, Dr Jason Littleton. Welcome to the podcast. Really excited today because we're talking about one of my favorite principles, named after my own last name the Littleton Principle. And this principle is so important to me because it's how successful people get things done. The Littleton Principle helps you to have permanent results in your life, and I'm going to talk about some examples here to really nail this in. We're going to have a great time. Let's get going Now. Before I start, I want to read this message from my compliance team Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk.

Speaker 1: 0:54

The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics. The information nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. Let's be intuitive here. We all know that. We all know we need to get in front of somebody to make accurate diagnosis and treatment. You need to get in front of your PCP, or please make an appointment with me. Get in front of me so that I can sit down with you and make accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Speaker 1: 1:36

As we're talking here, I want to talk with you about this exciting principle named after my own name, the Littleton Principle, and what I'm really excited about this is that it's really the keys and the secret to getting things done on a major level. It's what successful people know to do, so let's get into it. The Littleton principle really is about making things small and mastering the routines so that you can get where you want to go. Again, routines are the vehicle that help you to get to your destination. You have to be consistent. You have to master small steps so that you can get to bigger steps in your life. I think what happens is that when people see successful others, they want to emulate them, and nothing wrong with that, but what they want to do is what they end up doing is they try to do a whole bunch of things at once. They try to do large, huge steps that they haven't mastered, that they haven't practiced, that they haven't taken time with, and then they try to reproduce that thing that they saw the successful person do within a week or a small portion of time, and what ends up happening is that when people do that, it leads to frustration and burnout and you're not able to reproduce that type of exercise.

Speaker 1: 3:01

For example, let's talk about weight loss, and I think what happens is people wake up one day and realize they're not the weight that they want to be, or they realize that they gained a few pounds, or they don't like the way that they look. And now they go out to their favorite health food store, buy a whole bunch of supplements and foods and they purchase a gym membership. Buy a whole bunch of supplements and foods and they purchase a gym membership and they go at it hard for a good week. The problem with that is that it's not reproducible week two, week three, week four, and that's the problem. And when they don't see the results that they want like at the end of the week they might have only lost a pound and a half or at worst they could have gained a pound from water weight from the supplements that they took. Now they feel defeated, they feel like they want to quit, they feel frustrated, they feel back at square one and that's not a way to get things done. And when they look at that successful person that they're emulating, they feel like you know, there's something special about them that I don't have, and that's just not true at all.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Successful people will tell you that the difference is consistency doing something day in and day out and that's what the Littleton Principle is all about. It's hard to be consistent when you're starting If you try to take and bite off big chunks to whatever you're doing. If we're talking about weight loss, that's the problem in that first example You're biting off large chunks and not getting the immediate results that you want. Instead, your focus should be more on the process. It should be more about really changing your habits. So someone who's trying to go about weight loss in the right way should actually pick up a copy of my book, because in my book I talk about 15 things that you can do to have a successful weight loss regimen all in this book, right here Wellspring, the Energy Secrets to Do the Good Life. This is volume two, Energize Again and in this book you'll learn about 15 things that you can do to add to your weight loss regimen, and it makes a huge difference.

Speaker 1: 5:11

And when you do small things you're gonna feel like, oh, I'm getting this under my belt. So, for example, one small thing that I always talk about that people can do for weight loss, you know, in accordance with the Littleton principle, is the five minute rule, just running for five minutes three times a week. Now, five minutes doesn't seem like a long time. In fact, when I usually propose this to my patients or to anyone that I'm speaking to, sometimes people will scoff at me at first because they're like, no, you know, look, I can do 30 minutes, I can do 45 minutes. But it's never, ever really about the time. It's about can you do it tomorrow, Can you do it the next day, Can you do it next week?

Speaker 1: 5:55

I think the issue that people run into is well, you have to have this be built in your life. It's got to grow in your life. In order for it to grow in your already busy, expanded life, it's got to start out small, just like a seed. And when you allow this to grow just like a seed, and when you allow this to grow, you're able to feel like it's under your belt. You're able to feel like you can manage this and to do all the other things that are already there. So when you're running for five minutes three times a week, you'll get through the first week and that was only 15 minutes, but you're going to feel a sense of satisfaction because you actually got through the week. You did it three times a week for five minutes. You're going to feel good about that. You're going to feel strong about that.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Now, maybe you didn't lose any weight at all, but you actually completed the routine. So next week you're already set up to do it again, and you'll do it week two, week three, week four and then, before you know it, you're going to be adding time. It's built into your life. You're being consistent and your measurables are that. You know what. I didn't miss a day this week. I was able to do it week two. I was able to do it week three and you're feeling good about that Now. You're progressing. Now that's under your belt. You increase your time, Okay, and soon or later you realize wait a minute I'm losing weight.

Speaker 1: 7:27

But when you're changing things in terms of weight loss, you want to change one variable at a time. You want to change one variable at a time with anything that you're doing. Another example that I want to give you is you know, I'll give you a personal example. One of the things that I wanted to do better was I wanted to drink water at night and I wanted to keep that in my bed stand. That seems very, very easy, but you know, instead of having, you know, lemonade, which is probably one of my favorite drinks just having a consistent routine of making sure that look, post bedtime or the time I get ready to go through my bedtime routine we're only going to drink water. It's a healthier way to go. So just that one simple change that I made, by putting it on my bed stand and drinking it throughout the night, finishing the water when I first get up in the morning, has made a tremendous difference. It's just one simple change, and so, as I progress in my health, I'm making one change, mastering in it, so that I can get where I want to go, and I told you one of my long-term goals is to ski till I'm 90.

Speaker 1: 8:43

I said this in a previous podcast. One of the ways to get there is always being healthy, not being sick, being at my best and making a difference in the small things. Again, little changes make a ton of difference, right? So one of the other things that I want to share with you is that this principle is really about you taking time sitting down and breaking down. Whatever it is you want to change. What do you want to change? Do you want to think better thoughts? Do you want to start an exercise routine? Do you want to eat better? Whatever it is, you have to plan it out. Never try to make a whole bunch of changes at once in the beginning. Start small, be consistent and master it, and then, after you've mastered something, you go big. This is something that I think is so important for all of us to learn, exercise, reproduce and expand.

Speaker 1: 10:04

So one of the things that I've also done I want to give you another personal example is that I have a wake-up routine and I have a bedtime routine. Now the focus isn't so much on that, but one of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to be able to add you know, I add positive affirmations to my night routine when I wake up in the morning. I get up and I talk about spending time journalizing, taking time to write out my day, and then I have an affirmation I make in the morning as a Christian, I will, you know, speak God's word over my life from the Bible, and I wrote out an affirmation, so I'll speak that out in the morning. But I wanted to add that to my night routine, and so one of the things I did for my night routine was, as soon as I come in the door from wherever I'm at, whether I'm seeing patients, I'm coming in from the hospital, I'm coming in from an errand, I'll go to my office and I'll speak that confession over my life, because I'm doing that little affirmation to make a huge change in my life and actually I'm connecting it with that coming in the door part that I just mentioned. So when I come in the door, I'm like, oh, let me do my nighttime affirmations and you know it, just it motivates me, it makes my life bigger and better and it makes a huge change. And so that's another personal example of how I make a little change that makes a ton of difference.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Now, wherever you're at in life, I think it's always important that you move through the vehicle of routines to make your life bigger and better, and the Littleton principle is something that all successful people know, and now you know that you can practice Little changes make a ton of difference. Stop getting overwhelmed, Stop feeling flustered, Stop feeling like you won't get to your goals. Break them down, Make them small, Be consistent and make the ton of difference in your life. Little changes make a ton of difference. So that's all I have on this podcast for you. I want you to go to my social media Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Follow me, go to my YouTube, all right, and pick up a copy of my book Wellspring the Energy Secrets to Do the Good Life. Energize Again, and this is going to help you get to your goals and it's going to help you to master your routines, and I can't wait to see you on the next podcast. I can't wait to see you soon. Talk to you later.