Small adjustments...



With Christmas come and gone, it's the time of year when many of us ponder resolutions...making plans for changes in the new year. The temptation is often to make a long list of lofty goals...diet, exercise, no more smoking, no more drinking...the options for improving our lives can seem endless.

In August of this year, I began using an online tool at sparkpeople.com, and found enormous support and encouragement through this virtual community...support for making small adjustments that would lead me down the path to a healthier life. I've come to believe in the power of small adjustments, rather than big changes that are hard to make, and even harder to maintain.

While watching TV last night, I heard an ad for a new movie that opens this weekend...tucked into the snippet of dialogue in the trailer was this quote:

"...we are all just one small adjustment away from making our lives work..."

I love this quote, and it rings true for me. It reminds me of a discussion I heard some years ago, regarding the absolutely constant and microcosmic adjustments that are being made by the computers on space flights...the margins for error are infantesimal...the tiniest anomaly in direction can send a ship irretrievably off into space. Fortunately for us, the adjustments we make to our daily lives don't usually carry such dire consequences for error...but then again, perhaps the point is just as important...

Every decision we make on a daily basis takes us in a direction...small adjustments, for good or for ill, make all the difference in whether our life "works", or not. Course corrections, as they could be understood, are always available to us...if we err in a direction we don't wish to continue, we can make an immediate course correction...if we are moving in the direction that we want to go, we must continue to make daily course corrections in order to stay on our desired path.

In 2011, like every year before it, things will come up to distract us, redirect us...even derail us...call them crosswinds, or whatever suits you...the reality is, stuff happens, and we'll need to make small adjustments to accomodate for that stuff. Don't overreact, because overcorrection can be just as damaging as failing to correct at all...just be tuned into the fact that adjustments will need to be made...and if we stay aware and atuned to our surroundings, small adjustments will keep us on track.

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