By Crystal Young
Lowering
the bar to increase output, maximize energy and potential? It seems
counter intuitive, but I have encountered this concept on numerous
levels in the last few months and it has caught my attention...maybe it
is an eternal truth: Small gains -celebrated- amount to large victories
in God’s time.
The first time I noted this philosophy of
“lowering the bar” was listening to Emily McQueen speak to mothers in
August 2019. She said, “I found I get lots more done when I lower the
bar.” That is interesting.
Then this summer my sister sent me
the book Tiny Habits that Change Everything. The message: Humans love
to feel good, and humans will accomplish great feats if we can learn to
take tiny steps and reward ourselves with “Shine” all along the way.
“Shine” is anything that kicks a positive endorphin to your brain: a
smile, a fist pump, whisper a “Yesss!”, pats on the back, or put your
hands up in a victory V. The list is endless: it includes humming songs
like the Rocky theme song, or I am like a Star. To make these rewards
effective one must rejoice immediately after reaching a small goal and
rewards must be consistent.
No wonder I perked up while watching the General Conference Oct 2-3, 2021,
as the saga of the Cycling team from Great Britain was highlighted. A
century of dismal entries and no victories left Great Britain without a
hope until a new coach changed the perspective. He stopped seeking an
elusive win and instead sought to make just 1% improvements in dozens of
areas and reap the “the aggregation of marginal gains.” The results
after 20 years: 6 victories in the Tour de France...“And in the recently
concluded Tokyo Olympics, the UK won more gold medals in cycling than
any other country.”
Another example: Brad Wilcox
described a team that reached victory this way: “they started with
small, reachable goals. They got rid of the all-or-nothing expectations
and focused on incremental growth.”
The excitement is palpable.
We can effect positive change if we set small goals and then celebrate
them the way we celebrate a baby learning to walk: Cheers, smiles, and
claps. The baby smiles back and tries again. Eventually we just beam
with a pride and love I imagine is akin to what our Father in Heaven
feels for each of us.
I recognized this pattern again while
reading my mother’s personal history. One of her daughters was labeled
at school as slow and dumb because she was one of the last to turn in
her daily times table test. True to her mother's heart, my mom took
this daughter home and taught her how to succeed. Overwhelmed and
fearing she could not learn all the multiplication facts, my mom calmed
my sister’s fears by lowering the bar. “Right now, we are going to learn
just these two facts.” They did that. Celebrate! And the next time
they worked they learned one more and remembered the first two facts.
Five days later this sister returned to school, passed the
multiplication test with flying colors and took her math workbook home
with eager anticipation. That evening she finished all 67 pages
remaining in the book. She discovered that victory could be hers in any
endeavor given an approach that builds on successes.It is a joyful way
to live to accentuate the positive and look for successes. Life becomes
an offensive game instead of trying to play defense and keep ahead of
the dark and gloomy that is trying to scare us into believing the
challenge is too hard. The first step is to smile, we can do this.
