Micro-moments can lead to macro-changes

How can I change habits of a lifetime? Reflecting on my #triggingit2024 journey so far

Those who read my December 2023 blog might remember I want to make some positive changes in my life this year - for myself, social relationships, career, and to invest in what I'm passionate about.

Me and my good friend Natasha Hansjee have pledged to take this journey together, and use the Trigg lifestyle planner to facilitate it. Trigg helps you articulate a vision of your future self, and then create bite-size goals to help you walk towards that vision throughout the year.

Here are some of my January goals (to help create a better, more balanced me:

1. Build a strong bond with my new, brilliant Springer Healthcare IME team

2. Be more calm

3. Find time for reading literature (aka - stop the doomscrolling, and do something more enjoyable)

Some of those targets seem massive. (Be more calm.... oh, if only it was that easy, right?). But I broke each one down into micro-actions, which made everything much more manageable. Here's how I did it with daily action points:

1. Create a WhatsApp group for my IME team. Also, make sure I spend time at the start of each weekly meeting catching up with them on a personal level.

2. Do vagus nerve exercises for 1-2 mins whilst I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. (I found this awesome Tiktoker who taught me how)

3. Read 10 pages a day of a book before bedtime. I tended to read more than 10 pages once I'd got into the flow, but my committing to ONLY ten pages made it seem more palatable). Now I'm knee-deep in Britney Spears' autobiography, which is surprisingly compelling. Ok, please don't judge my literature tastes, but as someone who was obsessed with Toxic in the mid-2000s I stand by my actions

The picture of this blog is of my IME colleague's beloved parrot, Colette, who I learnt about in the WhatsApp group. She is a strong personality, she attacks iPod cases (jealousy), and goes to 'birdie day care' every week for the human contact.

By taking a few fun moments at the start of a business meeting sharing our personal lives, and adding to those moments by sharing pics on Whatapp, I have now a much richer perspective on what my new IME friend's life is like, what matters to her, and her passion for parrots.

The vagus nerve exercises are easy to remember to do, because I pair it with the natural time that I spend staring at the kettle whilst preparing my tea. I know it's helping because my BP is lowering.

And Britney has resparked my love of reading. I have now compiled a reading list for the rest of the month.

Microlearning in IME

This reminds me of one of our most well-engaged-with IME programs of 2023 - a series of podcasts on dry eye disease, supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Bausch + Lomb. A really simple program. 8 podcasts, with visual abstracts, and some Tweetorials. But the downloads have been amazing. The combination of expert-led insights + bitesize formats for 'on the go' doctors have really resonated.

Take-home messages for you?

What I want to share with you is that: Changes don't have to be big or overwhelming. By doing just one small thing, it can make a big difference.

If you're interested in making small changes, I recommend Dr Michael Mosley's BBC podcast 'Just one thing'. They are only 14-mins long, but packed full of info. Every week he trials a small change in his life to improve his health, and records the benefits. Cold showers, walking backwards, eating beetroot.... He looks at the science, speaks to experts, and shares his findings. Microlearning about microchanges.

Did you set any 2024 goals? How are you getting on with them? If you're strugling with goals, how about scaling them back to microchanges? Would love to hear how you are getting on