Freewrite: Incrementalism, Gradualism, And Their Self-Application
I am no a paragon of discipline and self-control, and I suspect there are others like me. I've always been interested in methods to hack my own health, as well as my brain.
Rather than trying to implement several big changes in my life simultaneously, one area I've been the most successful, is applying the same sort of incrementalism I see successful in governments all over the world. If gradual adjustments can promote lasting changes in citizenry, good or bad, why not in myself? If governments can extend control over the masses by slowly turning up the heat, like the famous metaphor of slowly boiling a frog in a pot, then why couldn't I use this strategy on myself to gain more control of my life?
To be completely honest, I believe that most government incrementalism is not done to empower citizens, but I also cannot deny its efficacy.
It works when governments do it.
Collins Dictionary defines incrementalism in political theory as "the theory, or implementation thereof, that change should be introduced gradually or by increments". <src>
When we talk about degrees, the smaller the degree of change, the less overall impact it will have, and the less chance for the change to be resisted by the population. Incrementalism is often used by governments to infringe upon the fundamental rights of its citizens, such as freedom of speech, association, or movement (COVID-19 anyone?). To accomplish this, a government will take a right that was once considered absolute, and over a protracted period of time, add small restrictions to it. Before you know it, your right that was once absolute, is no a shadow of its former self.
What About When Individuals Do It?
Incrementalism applied to individuals rather than politics might be better described by the term gradualism. Collins Dictionary describes gradualism as "the policy of seeking to change something or achieve a goal gradually rather than quickly or violently, esp in politics". <src>
No matter which term you choose to use, there are several areas in life you can apply gradual changes in the short term, that make big impacts over the long run.
Applied To Diet and Exercise
One of the best areas to apply gradualism in my mind, is when it comes to diet and exercise. You can easily apply small tweaks to your daily routine with very little impact, and requiring very little will and discipline. Some examples:
- No intake of calories in certain windows (hours before bedtime, intermittent fasting, etc.)
- Restricting certain foods to certain days
- Eliminating certain unhealthy ingredients during certain windows, and forcing yourself to substitute
- Requiring the intake of certain healthy foods or supplements on certain days
- Certain types of exercise on certain days or at certain hours
Here's a direct example related to sugar intake:
According to Healthline, in 2008, people in the US were consumed over 60 pounds (28 kg) of added sugar per year. This equals 76.7 grams per day, or 306 calories. <src> Through a gradualist approach, if you entirely eliminated sugar from your diet just one day per week, you would be eliminated almost 4,000 grams (about 8.8 pounds or 4 kilograms) of sugar from your diet per year.
Complete elimination of sugar isn't simple however because it is hidden in many foods. Even if you are addicted to sugar, you could probably summon the will to eliminate it from your diet one day per week. If you've successfully eliminated it from your diet for one day per week over the course of several months, adding an additional day is less of a challenge, because you have already developed the skill. With further increments, you could dramatically reduce or even eliminate your sugar intake over time.
Applied To Good Habits And Bad Habits
Gradualism can be applied to your habits outside of diet and exercise as well. You could apply it to reducing common bad habits like tobacco or recreational drug use. You could also apply it to increasing good habits, such as learning a new skill, reading, or saving. Combine this with a time management technique like Pomodoro, you could incrementally increase the aggregate amount of time spent on an activity, buy adding more and more pomodoros to your schedule over the course of a year.
The Tipping Point
At some point if you are making enough changes incrementally to your life, you will reach a tipping point where you are so conditioned to the positive action, it becomes too much of a bother to engage with the negative action. Applying the incrementalism of governments analogy, you have now been functionally denied an aspect of life, that had previously been enshrined.
Disadvantages Of This Technique
One disadvantage of this technique is it required methodical tracking. You must record on a calendar or notebook when you wish to do or not do certain behaviors, and also create reminders for yourself to ensure you are following the plan. It is also highly useful to track your progress in a journal to not only see how far you've come, but to also tweak the technique to aid in future goals.
What Do You Think?
My Question For You
Have you ever chosen to institute a major life change in small steps, or is easier for you to take an all-or-nothing approach?
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://joshman.com/freewrite-incrementalism-gradualism-and-their-self-application
Depends on what it is.
For diet, like drinking soda, I had to go from several cans a day to limit myself to 1 a day. Still haven't been able to go cold turkey.
As for things like eating out or exercise, I made drastic changes. Unfortunately, the current outbreak did cause me to break that eating out less routine I had going since last year.
Still seems like a large increment downward. Perhaps the next step would be reduce the days?! As I general rule I don't drink calories besides the occasional beer or wine. Mostly black coffee or tea for me.
Yeah, sucks! I am going to buy fresh produce and stuff like that a lot less. I signed up for butcherbox, so I'm at least getting some high quality meat sent to me.
I guess several might sound too many. There was a time where 2-3 cans a day was the norm. I think going down to 1 is not that bad. I haven't gone to the point where I could do every other day yet.
On that note, fresh food is generally better than the fast food alternatives. Right now, I feel like I'm in college again spending a ridiculous amount of money eating out.
Definitely, a few years ago I decided to try to live a bit healthier, I was over 81 kg and I wanted to get back to a number with a 7 in front. But I know myself, sometimes I have these primitive cravings where I really just want to eat a bag of crisps or chocolate and I just end up eating too much of it. I knew that if I wanted to loose weight trying to correct this behavior would just last until the moment I cave in.
So rather than tackling to cravings I tackled all the rest where I felt indifferent about. I started drinking coffee without sugar, rather than a sandwich I eat a salad for lunch when at work, pass on butter etc. Small things like that. These changes might seem trivial, but if you look at the amount of sugar and bad calories these represent on year basis the numbers are quite hallucinating. And the best part of it, it worked, I lost weight, feel better and those cravings that I just accept became way less. (It's crazy what effect sugar, junk food and alcohol have on your brain)
Another example is studying. I used to be a horrible student but I tend to keep studying even if I'm now working. Many colleges and universities have a lot of tools to combine working and studying and I'm from opinion someone should study there whole life. But rather than just hitting the books or assignments a few days before the exam or the deadline I now just try to learn one or two new things a day and repeat some of the things I learned the previous days. Might seem stupid but it hardly costs any energy, you remember the things way better even after the course is over. And the best part, I keep a healthy curiosity to gain more knowledge (something the modern educational system deprives you of)
Thanks for the comment, its crazy how much of a big difference small tweaks can make over time. Building on while reinforcing knowledge is a great way to go!
Incrementalism is something I need to apply as I always try to do all or nothing and end up back where I started. In "The One Thing" the author talks about picking one thing and making it a habit, work on it over 60 days and once it is a habit, work on the next "one thing". Trying that with my nasty smoking habit and just working on this one thing is a struggle.
This may not always be intentional, but it is in the nature of most governing bodies to take power from its citizenry or membership.
Thanks for the input. I'll have to keep my eye out for that book!
Yes I did it with the Wim Hof method.
I instantly saw the connection to Stanislav Grof's work with holotropic breath work and now I had the how to.
I have a lung condition so I started slowly with the breath work. It probably took three months before I could get enough oxygen into my system and reap the neurological benefits. If I had not recorded my slow progress i would have given up. After that I started working with the cold.
It made a huge difference with long term ailments vanishing. I highly recommend it.
Are you still pissed off because I see things differently than you do?
Glad that taking small steps helped improve your health.
I am pissed off?! That's news to me. 😱
Ah come on it was a question lol
Have you tried the Wim Hof method?
I highly recommend it, especially in these uncertain times of reported health scares.
Not that I take that too seriously, unlike the power grab that is going on which is much more of a concern.
No, but I will check it out! Thanks