The Domino Effect

Little kids line up dominos in a variety of patterns on the floor. With one flick of the first domino, there is a slow and deliberate cascading fall of each subsequent dominos until they all fell.

This plays out in our adult lives, too. Here are two different scenarios.

David purposely has an old analog clock with an alarm on the farthest end of his bedroom. When his alarm clock goes off at 5:30 am, it forces him to get out of bed to turn it off. This slight body movement to get out of bed propels up his body enough that he couldn’t crawl back into bed and sleep more. This early start gives David an hour to strategize his day with peace and quiet undisturbed before the rest of the world wakes up.

John’s alarm on his cell phone goes off. Without opening an eye, he reaches his arm over across the night table, picks up his phone, and knows exactly how to hit snooze. This happens six more times. An hour later, John finally gets up. He’s upset with himself that he’s now running late. He’s frantic and yells at his partner, trips over the dog, and quickly scuffs down a bagel before starting work. John’s first work meeting, he comes across with a bit of a bad attitude.

Either of these sound familiar?

Both have the same idea. Wake-up at a certain time each morning. Each begins with one deliberate choice and action. Yet, one sets himself up for success while the other does not.

Most people think it’s best to focus on your goal. It’s important always to have your goal defined. Yet, if you set up a single practice that could drastically change everything, you will reach that goal faster, better, and easier. Who doesn’t want that?

When teaching people how to rock climb, the first thing we teach is how to tie into the rope properly and secure the rope properly (i.e., belaying by the second person). The first step is not – how strong you are or the best technique to get up the rock. The very first thing is how to stay safe so you can do the latter. If you’re not safe, there’s no point in doing anything else.

A domino is a single choice (or practice) that leads to a certain behavior. This one choice has a cascading effect on the rest of your day.

If you could make one choice daily that would drastically improve your life for the better, what would it be?

Wishing you a joyful, loving, and prosperous day!

Lora Polowczuk
Chief Energy Officer