How The Little Things We Do Shape Us

Written by Maryam Gotis

Imagine a perfectly still, calm pond. Now, imagine dropping one pebble into the water. Alone, that pebble is tiny, but the moment it hits the surface, it creates a ring. That ring expands into another, and then another, until a single splash sends waves across the entire pond. This is what habits do over time.

Habits are routine actions you repeat regularly, like sleeping at 10:00 PM or tying your left shoe before your right. As insignificant as singular choices may seem, they lead to drastic results - both good and bad. 

"You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results." - James Clear

These examples reveal, quite simply, the trajectory of human choices. 

Every tiny daily action acts as a building block for future behavior, accumulating interest over time, just like money in a bank account.

Entrepreneur James Clear highlights in Atomic Habits that if you get 1% better at something each day for one year, you end up 37 times better by the time you’re done. The same is true if you get 1% worse every day for one year: your performance ends up declining nearly to 0. Making your bed every morning takes so little time, but it provides an immediate small “winning” feeling that makes you start the day in an organised atmosphere. Conversely, spending just 15 minutes scrolling on social media before sleep might seem harmless, but over a year, that adds up to nearly 90 hours of lost sleep and delayed recovery. 

Habits can be easily stacked over weeks, months - and eventually, years. During this process, an action becomes automatic, leading to good decisions even when your brain is tired - or, similarly, avoiding making decisions entirely because your body and brain already know what to do. Neurological research shows that as habits form, brain activity shifts to the basal ganglia (the brain’s automatic pattern center), allowing the prefrontal cortex to conserve energy. Some might argue that habits are quite rigid, but in reality they are  time/energy conserving actions that benefit your psychological and physical well-being. 

From this, we see that small choices aren’t at all small: just the slightest drop can cause waves. Be it cleanliness, organisation, time management - or procrastination, diet or activity. Your little decisions slowly gather and create your identity.

Don’t wait for ‘the moment’ to miraculously start “Your Year”. Pick one or five new positive habits, stick with them, and watch as your droplet ripples across  the entire ocean.