Conventional thinking:  Choose small reasonable goals, take small steps and make changes slowly.

Contrarian thinking: Make big changes at once in one big bang approach.

Dr. David Hyman, M.D., chief of general internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston coauthored a study that showed that changing everything at once in a big bang approach is much more effective than taking small changes over a long period of time.

Hayman and his colleagues asked his patients to quit smoking, reduce their salt intake, and walk an extra 1,500 steps a day.  This is a lot to ask of patients to take up at once.  One would expect that patients that chose one area to focus on would be better able to achieve their goals.  The results may surprise you.  According to the Archives of Internal Medicine, those who were asked to change all their bad habits at once, instead of one habit at a time, were able to fare a lot better.

The results from this study may surprise many people, but those that have taken on big, bold initiatives will tell you from experience that it is much more effective to go for the big results and put all your heart into it than to make small changes that progressively gets you closer to your desired state.

One of the key explanations for these big bang results is that if you take on small steps you do not see improvements fast enough to stay motivated.  Goal achievement is highly tied to an emotional state that drives you to take action.  If you are able to see significant results early in the process you will be more motivated to stay with the program.

There is also a physiological aspect to the big bang approach.  Going cold turkey shocks your system.  This triggers physiological changes that help you achieve your goals.  With small changes you body adjusts quickly and despite of all your efforts nothing changes.

If you are skeptical about this approach, try it one.  If you are trying to lose weight, instead of cutting a few calories from your diet progressively, then taking on more exercise a little at a time, do it all at once.  I am not talking about a crash diet here.  Think of it as a big change in your habits that will change you forever.  Get on a diet that cuts significant calories right away and get on a stringent exercise program.  You will notice that your chances of success will increase significantly.

The next time you set a goal for yourself, make it a big, bold, hairy goal and go for it with all your might.  You may be surprised by what you are able to accomplish.

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