Incrementalism helps us move to a better place a little at a time, and not all of it has to be toward a major goal. But it should be toward something good.
Unfortunately, we also can move a tiny bit at a time toward something we should not want to have or toward some place we should not want to be. This is the default in life. If we're not careful, we let ourselves drift just a little, and it is so slight that we aren't alarmed by it. And then we drift a little more, and we let it happen. All increments can compound, or build up, and we can find ourselves much closer to where we want to be, or we can find ourselves a lot further from where we want to be than we ever thought possible.
What I've been thinking about lately is not charting our success and not necessarily working steadily toward something huge and amazing, which of course we should do also, but doing almost random small things. Things that are not hard and don't take much effort, but things that still move us toward a better place, and things that prove to us that we can change and that encourage us to keep moving.
What I'm talking about is throwing in an extra push-up every once in a while. Not necessarily every day but just once in a while to prove to ourselves that we can do it. And then we can do it every day if we want to get stronger. Or for those very few who are not regularly doing push-ups, just get on the floor and do one push-up some morning or evening before taking a shower. You will prove to yourself that you can do it--or that you can't. If you can, now you are empowered because you know that you can do that every day if you want to. You can build up to where you can do five or fifteen or thirty-five every day if you want to. You don't have to think about the benefits of strength training and health, and feel guilty that you haven't been doing push-ups and exercising every day. You're just seeing where you are toward deciding where you want to be (which should be somewhere other and better than where you are). If you can't do a push-up, you are empowered because now you know where you are. And you know you're not where you want to be.
Read an extra book this year. Or for those very few who never read a book after graduating from school, read just one book this year. When you're driving past the library, just stop in and get a book. And read it. Now you're empowered. You've learned something. You can't read a book without learning something. It's impossible. You're better than you used to be. You can keep reading books and becoming more intelligent and knowledgeable if you want to.
If you're an introvert, smile at someone--just one person today--and say hello. I guarantee that no one will take offense, or threaten you or abuse you for doing it. And now you know that you can do it. If you want to, you can keep doing it. For extroverts, talk to two complete strangers on some random day, and make sure you emphasize them and what they care about. You knew you could do it. But you've helped someone else feel better about themselves.