It was circa 1977, and my father had bought a cassette tape for a road trip we were on. The tape was a recording of Steve Martin live at a comedy act in San Francisco. He had popularized this act on Saturday Night Live called, “get small.” He would later get a Grammy award for the album and for awhile people would knowingly look at each other and say the phrase – Get Small, as if they knew what each other was talking about. The actually comedy skit for Get Small was rather short. It was a interesting commentary on the drug crazed culture of the late seventies with a sarcastic and ironic twist to the phrase that someone wanted to Get High. At the time, I really did not know why it was funny when Steve Martin talked about the police officer pulling him over and saying, “say, you look like you are really small to me, step outside so that I can measure you.” I think it was funny, because my Dad thought it was funny. Seeing him laugh was enough to make me laugh and because of that I have always remembered this sarcastic little phrase, Get Small.
I have recently used this phrase for an entirely different purpose. I use it now as a short little mantra to remind me of the first step that I need to take in order to successfully achieve a commitment and develop an associated habit. I need to Get Small. What this means is that in order to be successful at a new commitment, it needs to be small enough so that you will do it consistently. If the task is to big or too great then you will fail and not be able to keep it up. Here in is the problem, however.
We think we can do it. We think we can get big one day, and overcome our resistance and start doing the good thing we want to accomplish. So consequently, we drag this out for weeks, months, years, decades. Time goes by and that “one day I will do it” turns into never and we do not accomplish what we think we can. We have to face the very simply fact that what we are trying to accomplish is too hard. That is the primary reason that we are not doing it. The only real solution to starting the commitment, is to get small, real small. Break that commitment, that new habit down to the lowest denominator and then try it. You will discover that suddenly you are able to keep it up for several days in a row and before you know it you can add more.
Let me try an example. I have this commitment that I have made a 1000 times, yet have failed 1000 times. That is drink more water. Yup, quite simply, I have come to the conclusion that I need to drink more water everyday. I have set out to try, only to fail within 3 – 4 days later. I have in the back of my mind the need to drink more water and that one day I will come up with some method or system to follow that will encourage me to drink more water. I have bought special water, I have had water delivered to my house, I have bought really cool water bottles, I have downloaded a water drinking app that pings me with reminders. None of this works. Why? Because it is too hard. Really? Just drinking water is too hard? Yup. I need to face reality. My goal of just drinking more water is just too hard of a commitment for me to be able to keep up. Embarrassing, but true.
So the answer is to Get Small. In this example, what I should do is decide this. From now on every morning, when I first wake up I am going to drink a full 16 oz of water. That is it. That is all I have to do. I do not have to worry about anything else. No measurements, no tracking, no special tools, just wake up and drink a full glass of water. I can commit to do that everyday and make a habit out of it. Now that will not meet my full goal of drinking more water, but I will be much closer than I am now. I will be drinking 16 oz more of water per day than I am now. So by getting small, I incrementally improve and that is the key and core component of successful habit building and ultimately keeping commitments.
So is there something that you have been wanting to start for a long time? Do you keep saying one day but that day never comes? Well if that is the case, you can do what I have learned recently and that is that you need to Get Small.
Guy Reams
