#117: Small Changes, Massive Impact: The High-Leverage Way

Ever wondered how tiny changes can lead to massive life transformations?

In this episode we share how small changes in action can spark massive transformation. Though seemingly insignificant, these small changes hold the power to revolutionize various aspects of your life. We'll explore high-leverage practices for personal growth, and uncover the practical yet extraordinary potential of small changes.

ACTION STEP FROM THE EPISODE:
Consider any small positive changes you have made in your life that have had a massive impact on your results and then drop us an email at hello@habitmasters.com letting us know so we can add it to our list of 100 High-Leverage Ideas.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Download your free Closing Loops Reference and Quick guide
• Check out the Magic Monday Newsletter for more on high-leverage tools and other awesome tools. Subscribe to get first dibs on all future tools.

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Transcript

Sheldon Mills: 0:00

welcome to Habit Masters. I'm Sheldon. I'm Jeff. And this is episode 117. We're talking about Little things that make a huge difference, we've got a couple of stories and things, but I think, this one's powerful. Do we always say that?

Jeff Corrigan: 0:14

Hey, that's a good sign. Hopefully we're talking about good things.

Sheldon Mills: 0:16

Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it really is.

Jeff Corrigan: 0:18

If you haven't signed up for our magic Monday letter yet, you should because we're starting to do free downloadable PDFs with all of them to help you put these tools into action in your life and make it easier. So yeah. Check out magic Monday, subscribe, get on board. I think you're going to like it. Okay.

Sheldon Mills: 0:36

Okay. We'll start with the story. What happened is I was cruising the gram, something. But I found this tool is like an ad, somehow the filters, the everything, just

Jeff Corrigan: 0:46

like the thing. It knew you. It knew exactly So it was

Sheldon Mills: 0:51

for this tool that's supposed to target your psoas muscle, right? I didn't even know what that was. Never heard of it. Why should I care? But the little thing is like, Oh, back pain, this and that. And all of a sudden I was intrigued. And so I started to do a little bit of research on it. And , there's a tool called Pso-Rite? It's spelled PSO. Then R I T E, rite? But the psoas, that muscle is actually spelled P S O A S., anyway. And the testimonials and the things were just like, this thing has cured me. It's like a miracle. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it's 80 bucks. Right. And I was like, I don't want to spend 80 bucks. I mean, if it really works. More than worth it. Right? I didn't want to spend 80 on the chance of something that was just like, I don't know, return policies and things like that. Anyway, so I found an alternative from China for 15 if you want, we can wait a month. Or I found somebody who mocked it up and I just printed it out on my 3D printer. Ended up being like 5 and change of filament

Jeff Corrigan: 1:53

that's awesome. Yeah.

Sheldon Mills: 1:56

Yeah. Yeah. All of this is on the blog post. If you want, if you're interested and want to go check it out. But this is the actual crux of the story is I tried this out. Right. And I'm, watched looking at videos to try and figure out how to do it in the right position and moving around. It's almost like a hurt good, like a painful good. I mean, it's a deep muscle, right? So you kind of got to get past the surface muscles. And so, so you're like laying on this thing, but sticking into your hip and whatnot. So I would, it's not like a massage feel kind of good, but a hurt feel kind of good. Yeah. Like

Jeff Corrigan: 2:26

pressure points.

Sheldon Mills: 2:27

Yeah. Yeah. And I, I was like, I don't know. I can't tell if, I feel like it's relieving tension and this and that, but. I get up and I go and lay down in bed and I'm talking with my wife and I have this like dawning realization that my back isn't hurting, I'm one of these guys that I can't just lay on the ground and fall asleep. I'd wake up an hour later with my back so tight, you know what I mean? It doesn't impede me from exercising, from doing stuff. In fact, that's when it feels good. That's when it goes away. I'm mobile. Yeah, exactly. In the blog, I go into why is your psoas tight and some things like that anyway, there's more info there. Don't need to go on that here, but it was like this. I don't know how to explain it. It's this is just part of my life. It's just, as long as I can remember, I've had lower back pain. Right? Yeah. It's not debilitating. It's not so much that I have to, as I've been better exercising and stretching, it's like less, but it's just basically constantly there right? If I've been sitting at my chair, at my desk, which I do all day, every day. Yeah. Like most of us, my back hurts, right? I have a standing desk and if it gets bad enough, I, I stand, I have a kind of like a bike thing I can ride. Right. But. All of a sudden it was like my back didn't hurt and to test this theory out I made a point to fall go to bed laying on my back and if I do that inevitably I'm gonna wake up an hour or two later and have to Try and reposition and a regular night's sleep for me is you know waking up four or five a dozen times trying to reposition My tight back to be able to fall back asleep again. It's like a half awake, you know It's not like it's like fully awake, It's not as bad as sleep apnea or something like that, obviously, but I got less sleep that night, but it was a better quality sleep I fell asleep on my back and one of those rare nights. I woke up about six hours later On my back like I hadn't rolled over in a night. It was like it is amazing. That's like a miracle. I mean, okay, one time does not a pattern make, right? Right. But I, the only time for the next week after that, the only night I had a problem is when I played ultimate frisbee one day and did all this stuff and kind of almost tweaked my back and didn't use it. And then that night was kind of like a regular night. Right. Yeah. So if I've had

Jeff Corrigan: 4:56

success since

Sheldon Mills: 4:58

then. Yes. Yes. The last two weeks I've been using it. If I use it for, even if it's only five minutes, it's like at night, it's like literally one night I was like brushing my teeth while I was like laying on it. Right. Or watch something on TV. Right. It has completely, I paint free. And it's one of those things that just was like a little change. Has made a fairly dramatic difference in my life. Not like a life changing, but to be more pain free, a better night's sleep. It's been kind of amazing.

Jeff Corrigan: 5:31

Well, yeah, and that's, I think at the heart of this idea and this concept why Sheldon is sharing the story with you is because there's lots of things in your life that are like this, where you may be dealing with a problem you've been living with it and there's a solution out there. That's a simple solution that could help you. Relieve or solve the problem almost entirely, with very little effort on your end. And I call these high leverage activities. Lots of people call these high leverage activities or high leverage solutions, there's small actions that lead to big results or small solutions that lead to big results. And it's funny because almost all things end up this way where a big problem is often the problem is quite a bit smaller than we think it is. And I think we avoid. Even looking into the problem because it feels complicated. It feels hard to resolve. Feels like the solution will be more difficult than the problem is worth solving. Right, like Sheldon was saying, he was living with his back pain because it wasn't debilitating. He didn't go off and solve the problem immediately. He wasn't constantly looking for solutions. But when Instagram popped up with, hey, this might help you. Okay, maybe this is easier than I thought. Okay, and he looked into it. And sure enough, it was easier than he thought, and for five dollars and some, time on the 3D printer, which we live in the 21st century, hallelujah, right, how grateful are we for that kind of stuff that he just boom, prints his own, whips it out there. And it ends up working effectively. Now I'm sorry, I'm summarizing your whole story you just told, but to give another example from my own life of something very similar, because I think the concept is sound here and both of these are kind of physical ailments, but I think it's because they're one of the most obvious points of pain, right? In our life is things that we feel physically they're the easiest to identify in, right? Sometimes the easiest to solve. But I was playing basketball about seven years ago. We used to play morning basketball a lot and I sprained my ankle. pretty severely. And it took me almost six months to fully get my function back. And then for probably five to six years after that, if I would do exercise, which if you've listened to the show, I do some running and a lot of exercise. So I would notice after exercising that my ankle would be very weak. It was never as strong as the right ankle. It was my left ankle that I sprained. And so it was never quite the same and it would always be really sore after exercising. And it would take me, lots of stretching and rubbing to kind of get it back to where I could use it the next day.. Apply some products essential oils, things like that. So. I never really had much luck though getting it to stay, it would always hurt, and I dealt with that for six years. Until one day my wife told me that she went to this new chiropractor and he was doing It's called muscle works chiropractic, right, and he would actually do where he does muscle testing to see which of your muscles is actually not activating, and then he goes in and applies pressure to a certain point to reactivate the muscle. And this may sound like hocus pocus to you, but I'd been dealing with this pain long enough that I was like, it's probably worth it to at least check it out. It's who am I, right? What do I know? So I went to the chiropractor. He tested my muscles. Within 15 minutes, he figured out which of my ankle muscles was not firing. Because here's what happens when you sprain or injure a muscle. It doesn't reactivate it on its own. This is something I did not realize. It's like your muscles. So if you've had muscle pain in the same area for years and years, it's highly likely that you traumatize that muscle at some point. And it's been constricted ever since. And so that's what he told me. He's yeah, your ankle, he's it's never going to recover fully the way it used to be until you reactivate these muscles and they kind of regain their elasticity. And so he did just a few minutes. of pressure on the muscle. And ever since then I've had a strong normal ankle again, right? It's like it still clicks because that's more of a cartilage thing but it doesn't hurt anymore, right? I don't get the severe pain and weakness in that ankle that I used to. I dealt with that for six years, people. And it was all because of some point of ignorance that I just was unwilling to face. It's like I, I was avoiding the solution because I felt like it would be complicated or it would take a lot of time or I'd have to go see a bunch of doctors. And it ended up being a lot simpler than that. And I feel like this can be a solution for you, not just with physical ailments, but with all kinds of struggles or obstacles or things that you're working on in your life.

Sheldon Mills: 10:04

Yeah. This was powerful enough of an example in my life that I like, well, I got to share this. Do You helped me out this much. I can't not

Jeff Corrigan: 10:12

share it with people. But

Sheldon Mills: 10:14

more than that, I feel like it triggered this idea that we're talking about is I can't help, but feel that there are things in my life that if I were to figure out what it is, be open to new experiences, There are these little things that could have a massive impact on my life. And I think that the most dramatic impacts is if I can figure out simple ways to simply change the way I think, right? I think we've all had those moments and, as we mature, we grow where all of a sudden when all of a sudden you can see something in a different way and everything changes because of it, all of a sudden you can't unsee it. You can't go back to the way you thought of it before because all of a sudden your mind has been expanded. Yeah. And it's just that little bit of change and effort just opened up a whole new world of possibility and understanding. So I was trying to find like specific things, like examples of that. I wanted to figure out these Things that I could give to people that would help them, so I kind of went back to some of our, episodes with people and I picked a few things, a few physical and a few, examples of small changes that might make me a big impact. If you had a couple interviews with people about mindfulness, right, of taking the time to meditate and just the power and reducing stress and being grounded and the energy that it brings to the power of gratitude. One of our first interviews with a doctor hatch was about brain health, like even now. I listened to that and it's like how incredibly powerful some of the things that he shared in there were, right? Like things that fire together, wire together, so like those pathways, those brain pathways.

Jeff Corrigan: 12:00

Jeff? What do you think? Well, so if we're thinking, if we're talking like, Hey, Small things, small changes you can make that have a huge impact on your life. One of the things for me that was just huge in my life was I stopped listening to talk radio. And I started listening to audiobooks instead, right? Personal self help books back in the day. This is probably 15, 20 years ago at this point, but it completely changed my life. It's a one small change that was actually pretty difficult to make because I love sports radio, right? Oh, I did. I don't anymore. I don't care but back then I loved sports radio and it was a daily routine for me But that small tweak in my routine of 20 minute drive to work Instead of listening to that, I started listening to what it does. Zig Ziglar used to call it., he says auto university. Right. It's like when you are listening to books on tape or books on tape, we're dating ourselves now. But those listening to this probably know what those are. So, yeah, audio books of any kind that are more like, Hey, training your brain, helping you change and improve in the learning, learning, expanding, exactly right. Growth, progress inducing type of literature and I just fell in love with it. And instead of just listening to talk radio and what other people thought and had opinions on about sports teams, now I was making changes in my life. And little tweaks here and there that just changed not just the way I was thinking, but the way I was acting which in turn changed my results. And I think that's probably been the biggest high leverage change in my life. That was so small, right? 20 minutes a day. You would think what could that do? Well, a lot. Changed my health, changed my finances, changed my relationships changed my focus on my life. And to that point, , another really small task that has really made a difference in my life is journaling. High leverage activity. That just takes a few minutes a day. And you've heard this a lot. I know you guys have heard this before. But it doesn't change how impactful it can be. So have you been reluctant to change because it seems too simple? Because too often that's the truth. Is what's easy to do is also easy not to do. As Jim Rohn famously said. What's easy to do is also easy not to do. So what are those things that you haven't been doing that you know are easy to do that would have a major impact on your life? And that is where you need to look. And if you haven't found what those are yet, I promise you they're out there. Identify an issue in your life that you've been kind of ignoring or trying to ignore and haven't been able to and look for a simple solution that might and all solutions aren't simple. I get that right. Maybe it is more complicated, but the change and the long term benefit that you'll receive from just exploring it could be huge. Way bigger than you can imagine. Sorry, there was one more I was going to say that I forgot to say. Yeah. Is with relationships. When it comes to relationships, right, we're talking is writing a love note to my wife every day. It's not like a true love note, it's sticky note, right? Five to ten words. It's not like I'm writing a novel. But, just writing that every morning has a major impact on my relationship with my wife. Just expressing my love in a way that she can see it a little later in the day. Not just saying, I love you, right? I do that too. But it's that's had a major impact on my relationship. And I can't specifically say what that impact has been, but I can feel it, right? I know it's there, and I know that's important to her, and it's something that I try to never miss. Now I do miss sometimes, but I try not to miss it. And I can sense a difference when I don't. When I don't leave a note or versus when I do, there's a big difference in just the overall feel of the day feels more chaotic, there's less connection there. And that's such a small thing. It takes me literally less than a minute every morning, sometimes longer if I'm being very thoughtful about the words, but it's a small change that could potentially have a big impact on your relationship.

Sheldon Mills: 15:53

I, it'd be fun to compile a list of things from people that they found is like, Hey, this little thing massively impacted my life. One of the examples I put in here was a friend of mine who during the winter started taking vitamin D in the winter and swears that it has helped them be more energetic, stave off depression just because it's just more sensitive to it. Right. Yeah. It's just like the winter blues. And it's just like that little thing, this teeny little, like literally it looks, it's like small. It's just a little pill, right?

Jeff Corrigan: 16:27

Vitamin D pill. And it makes a huge difference. That's a really great example. Like a tiny pill can have such a huge impact. Think of this as kind of like the tiny vitamin D pill for whatever it is you're trying, you're working with. Right. What is that high leverage thing? That can have a huge impact in a positive way on my life and there's a lot of them out there and I think over the next little while Sheldon, we should compile a list, not just of ours, but of everyone and we'll start building up a whole slew of these and we'll share them with you. I'd love to get to a hundred, here's a hundred high leverage solutions, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, right? Like all those things that make it make a huge impact on your life. All right. That's one of our tasks. And this is a PDF that we'll give away for free. Once we have it right is a hundred high leverage activities.

Sheldon Mills: 17:19

So send

Jeff Corrigan: 17:20

them in. Yeah. Send them in. If you have them, please email us. hello@habitmasters.Com and we'll start compiling a list. What is something that. You did a small tweak in your life and small can be relative, but, relatively small tweak in your life that had a huge positive impact for you. Homework?, please share. You guys have homework

Sheldon Mills: 17:37

now. This would be, I mean, we will do our research and do our best, but more we can get from you to help us build this, the better it will be. So please.

Jeff Corrigan: 17:47

Yeah. And we just want to thank you guys for listening. One of the things that we talk about on the show is gratitude. And hopefully you guys feel it from us that we're so grateful for you taking the time to listen to the show and. Even more so for taking advantage of some of the tools that we're putting out there. We're just going to try and add as much free value as we can. So if you haven't picked up Magic Monday or any of our other free PDF resources, go to our website, check it out. it'll be in the show notes as well. You guys are awesome. It's time to start living your best life.