How tiny wins will change your brain chemistry

What if you could re-wire your brain to help you succeed?  What if you could silence those negative stories and stifle doubt and fear?

Would you do it?

Tiny wins and small victories are potent.  Every single one releases the neurotransmitter dopamine into the brain.

Dopamine is your friend, and you want to hang out together as much as possible.

It's like a chemical puppet master, controlling communication in the brain.  It tells neurons when to fire or stand down.  If when the neurons fire, it modulates the message, like a politician responding to a simple question.

Dopamine is also the brain's pleasure chemical.  It has a domino effect throughout your body enhancing motivation, memory, behavior and cognition, attention, sleep, moods and learning. 

It gets better.

Research shows that people will higher level of dopamine are actually motivated to work harder than others who have lower levels of dopamine.

A tiny win releases dopamine - your brain's way of rewarding successful behavior.  That puts you in a better mood, improves your memory and let's you get a good night's sleep.

The increased levels of dopamine increase your motivation, which in turn, produces more small victories. 

This is the crux of the matter and why it is vitally important to focus on tiny wins now rather than a major success or breakthrough in the future.

A major success, a dramatic victory, the breakthrough of a lifetime - these are all rare events.  Sure, they will release a lot of dopamine, but they are few and far between.

In order to get to that big success, you need motivation.  You get motivation from dopamine.  You need a dopamine hit every day.  You get those from tiny wins. 

I'm sure you've experienced the elation of setting a big goal - be it financial, relationship or fitness - but then slowly over time lost your focus, lost your motivation, and put that goal in the dust bin.

That happens all the time. 

Without the dopamine-filled chemical pathways, you have zero chance of success.  It's not a matter of will power - not at all - it's biochemical. 

You need to pull your own biochemical levers to ensure you have the motivation to continue.  Many of us blame a lack of willpower or laziness for our failures.  This is completely unfair and goes against everything we know about success. 

Use the tiny wins to wire your brain for success and flood it with dopamine.  The big victories will take care of themselves. 

We can only predict the trajectory not the specific outcome

Every single human being has a plan.  Do this first.  That second.  That other thing third.  Presto, you've arrived at your destination.

But the reality is entirely different.

For example, in school you decide to study for a certain occupation.  But once you graduate you decide that there's no way you want work in that occupation.  So you get a job doing something 180 degrees from where you started.

Then that job leads you to something even more distant from where you started.

But there's an economic crisis, and the company downsizes.  The worst!

Except it allowed you to re-evaluate and re-invent yourself, and you find an opportunity you never would have found if it weren't for that downsizing.

And so forth.

In fact, the average person will have up to seven careers in a lifetime.  Not jobs - careers!

When you began your journey, there was no way you could have predicted where you are now.  But you could likely have predicted that over time, things would get better, even if there were some detours along the way. 

That's the trajectory.  Better over time.  And we can predict a trajectory based on the tiny wins and small successes we achieve.

Let's look at an alternative scenario.

You decide you hate your job and you're not going to lift a finger for that lousy boss or lousy company.  You'll show-up 9-5, but that's it. 

And your partner is a nag and doesn't appreciate you, so you'll minimize any interactions on that front. 

And it's a bad month to give-up smoking/sugar/fast food/alcohol because you're stressed.

Now you can't predict the specific outcome of this approach, but for sure you can see the trajectory, and it's not better over time.  It's likely job loss, or relationship loss, or some sort of sedentary disease or all three.

The power of tiny wins is this: they ensure that the trajectory is positive, that things get better over time. 

How so?

Because tiny wins provide a positive feedback loop.  Success breeds more success.  In fact, all success is based on the cumulative effect of tiny wins.  But you have to collect tiny wins like coins if you want the results.

Even more importantly, tiny wins give you a glimpse into another way of doing, another way of being, that you thought impossible. Now that you've achieved a small success, you know you can achieve it again. 

Impossibility morphs into reality.

I grew up in a family where nobody had ever attended higher education.  We didn't have a ton of money.  I moved around the country and attended eight schools in as many years.  We didn't have connections in high places.

Trajectory doesn't look great.

With such a hectic childhood, the only thing I could do was focus on achieving small things in the short term, because I had no idea where I would be next month or next year.

My tiny wins included making a good friend or two who were solid and smart.  Listening to the teacher and spending extra time on assignments.  Picking one sport and mastering each skill separately over time.

Each of those wins changed the trajectory.  For years I had no idea what I would do or where I would do it.  But the tiny wins led me to a graduate program in law at the University of Cambridge - one of the top 5 universities in the world.  With a free ride scholarship to boot.

I had no greater intelligence than anyone else, and no greater motivation (in fact I had no real ambition to speak of).  But I achieved and celebrated the small victories that put a smile on my face every day. 

Long-term goals are fine.  Aim there.  But use tiny wins to set the trajectory, and you may just fly right past that long-term goal into something even greater than you could have ever predicted.

How tiny wins trigger an avalanche of success

Tiny wins are micro-successes that you target and achieve each day.

Equally important, you acknowledge them as successes to yourself.  Do not diminish them or disregard them, elevate them and protect them.  They are the foundation of great things to come.

There's a menu - no, a buffet - of choices every day of small but vital and powerful things you can do to create your tiny win. This blog will help guide you there, every day.

Inertia.

Inertia in our lives is born from fear.  It is reinforced by the status quo bias, a cognitive bias where people tend to do nothing or maintain the previous course in spite of evidence that a change in direction would be a much better decision.

Why?

Because we fear the negative possibilities of what might happen if we change course more than the endless rewards of taking a different path.

It might be why you are in  - what you consider to be - a dead-end job, an unhealthy state of being, lonely, jealous or angry at the world. The fear of something terrible happening if you change direction is greater than the promise of a better future.

Inertia and the status quo bias devastate many lives that would otherwise be rich and fulfilling rather than asphyxiated with fear and a paralyzed spirit.

Here's the good news.

You don't need vast amounts of will power or hours every day to quickly escape inertia and the status quo bias.

You need tiny wins.

Small successes jolt your subconscious.  They reduce the fear of changing course because they are a change of course, and that change was successful!

When you're driving on the highway, how much effort does it take to change lanes?  It's just a slight turn of the wheel, not an arm-over-arm effort.  But now you're in a lane going in a different direction, and it doesn't take long to be a long way from where you used to be.

Tiny wins are like changing lanes on the highway - small efforts with a powerful and permanent result.  Enough tiny wins not only transform you, they can change the world.

Amnesty International is worldwide human rights and justice group with 7 million members.  They feverishly act for those suffering injustice anywhere in the world.

It was started by a lawyer named Peter Benenson. 

Did he wake-up one day and say, "Hey, I'm going to start a worldwide organization with 7 million members to influence governments around the world and save the innocent?" 

If he did, I suspect he would have quickly found himself in the fetal position watching the equivalent of YouTube cat videos in 1961.  That kind of "win" is too overwhelming, too hard, too expensive, and would have a good chance of ruining your life.

Here's what Peter did.

He was reading a newspaper and caught a story of two Portuguese students who raised a glass to toast liberty and freedom.  They were promptly imprisoned.  For seven years!

Outraged, Peter decided that he was going to sit down and write a really great letter with a catchy title.  In his letter, he would ask other people to write the Portuguese government and tell them to (I'm paraphrasing here) "go to hell."  That was his first tiny win. 

Letter written, mission accomplished for the day. 

Next he aimed to have it published as a letter to an editor.  He put it in the mail the following day.

Mission accomplished for the day.

The Observer newspaper in the United Kingdom liked it and published "The Forgotten Prisoners" as an article.  That was his next tiny win.

He also wanted to write letters to the Portuguese government and aimed to find other people to help him write letters.  He found six others.  They called themselves "Amnesty International" and started a letter writing campaign. 

There's a an easy win - write letters over a few beers in the man cave (or the equivalent in 1961 London).

His article was so moving, and his idea of a letter writing campaign so compelling, that within a short time there were groups of letter writers all over the world under the umbrella of Amnesty International.

Peter targeted a few tiny wins because they were easily achievable.  What he may not have known was that those tiny wins were the pebbles that started an avalanche of enormous success. 

I'm not talking financial success here (though I'm sure Peter did quite well for himself).  I'm talking about massive impact and satisfaction - the kind of success that gives you a smile at the end of your days.

From hopelessness to euphoria

Hopelessness.

We've all felt it.  The feeling that our life has stalled, that we peaked around age 12.  Intensified by the social media misrepresentations and outright lies by everyone you know, you feel you just can't measure-up in this world.  And that you'll never measure-up, not in any significant way.

Everyone else is fabulously successful, wealthy, happy, or God forbid, all three.

You feel your job is at a standstill and your career ladder is missing the top rungs.

Hopelessness comes from your perception that the distance from here to there is too great, too far, too hard.  A Grand Canyon leap of massive proportions achievable only by those smarter than you, more social than you, luckier than you, richer than you.

Euphoria.

An attitude and feeling of excitement and elation.  That things are changing for the better, that your life is not only under control, but absolutely spectacular.  Things are going so well you don't have the time or inclination to bother posting it on social media.

Your health is top notch.  Your career taking welcome and unexpected twists and turns.  Your finances no longer a concern.  You are the rock and center of all your relationships, lifting the spirits those around you.

I guarantee this blog will take you from hopelessness to euphoria.  From mediocre to amazing.  From unhealthy to fit.  From broke to much better than doing just fine.

You will learn to banish from your mind the great crevasse that you currently see from here to there.  Instead you will use the immense power of tiny wins to make a life you love.

At age 18, Joe Roberts was a high school dropout and drug addict living under a bridge on the streets in Vancouver, Canada.

He didn't aspire to be a multi-millionaire within ten years and grace the cover of a national business and cultural magazine. 

But that's exactly what happened.

He set the goal of reaching out to someone for help.  So he did that at a local outreach clinic.  Tiny win accomplished for the day.

A social worker there contacted his mother who traveled to Vancouver.  Joe's next win was to live with her - under her rules - and return to school.  Tiny win - done.

Next he decided to pay attention to the teacher.  Each day a win.

He graduated at the top of his class.  But he was unemployed.

He knew about people from his time on the street, so his next win would be a job in sales someplace. 

Done.

He decided to use his sales ability to start a small web design company.  Just before the dot com boom.

Boom - he's wealthy and he's on the cover of Maclean's - a national publication.

I hope you join me - join all of us - and turn tiny wins into a big life.
 

Tiny win suggestion #1: Improve one person's day

Have you ever found yourself staring blankly in the mirror and see your muse looking back at you, just shrugging its shoulders?  Your idea oasis a mirage?  Brainstorming can't muster a single thunder cloud?

We all need a little inspiration now and then, so I'll be pitching a few easy hitters for you on a regular basis right here on this blog.

So today, you improve one person's day. 

A relative, a work mate, a stranger - it doesn't matter.  Pick one. 

Bring them a coffee just how they like it.  Wash their car (or bicycle).  Take one of their tasks and complete it for them. Tell them what you admire about them.  Compliment them on something other than their looks or clothes.

Be genuine.  

Mission accomplished?

This tiny win does a lot.  Aside from perking someone up, it's a quick lane change from self-focus to generosity. Generosity in terms of time, attention or caring is a valuable asset.  Somebody will see you in an enhanced light. 

You'll see yourself as capable of giving more than you normally do.  It won't be as scary next time.  You're punching the status quo bias right in the family jewels.

Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton (one of the best business schools in the world) published Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.  In it, he makes a very compelling case that givers achieve much greater success than takers. In fact, they inhabit the top of the success scale.

I'd say generosity is pretty good place to rack-up some tiny wins.