You’re likely aware of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”

The poem ends with the famous line “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”

Nice idea. The problem is that the narrator of the poem knows full well the path he took was “worn really about the same” as the other.

It’s a poem about how we embellish our decisions, making them sound better than they were.

I thought of this recently as I reflected on how I make progress in my life and work.

It happens in two ways.

I’ll call them the micro way and the holistic way.

Micro Way

The micro way is all about changing “one little thing.”

That’s often how I’ll ask the question to myself: “What’s one little thing I can do to lose weight?” for example.

What’s one little thing I can do to . . .

. . . get more done each day?

. . . to write a chapter each week?

. . . to increase the number of books I read this year?

. . . to improve my relationship with my son/daughter/spouse/sister?

Sometimes the best way for me to make progress is to pick one little thing to try. An experiment. I wrote about one of these here.

The micro way is all about the idea “small hinges move big doors.” What’s one little thing I can do to effect change?

That’s the micro way.

Photo by Mitchell Orr on Unsplash

Holistic Way

Then there’s this other way I’ve noticed change take root in my life. I call it the holistic way.

The holistic way is not about picking one little thing but rather picking a mode or pattern or paradigm.

Instead of thinking about a single choice, I think more in terms of “stepping into” a new mode.

Let me give you an example. When I recently went on a vacation with my family, I let loose with my exercise and nutrition choices. While on vacation I stopped thinking about that stuff. I just had fun, and I’m glad I did.

But when I got back home, I noticed I was acting like I was still on vacation. Decisions that were healthy while I was on vacation (because I was on vacation) now started to look unhealthy.

So I realized, “Oh, I need to step out of vacation back into work mode,” except “work mode” doesn’t do it for me. I like “achievement mode” or “thriving mode” much better.

In the holistic way I’m less concerned about an individual discipline or experiment or choice and much more concerned about my mindset. I know if I get my mindset right, multiple choices will naturally follow.

Thinking in musical terms helps me. The micro way is like picking a single new note to play on the piano. The second is like picking a different song to groove to.

A chart:

How to Pick

Hearkening back to the Frost poem, I’ve noticed one way is not better than the other. They are just two different ways to find my way to desired results—be it lower weight or more money or better art or whatever.

So how do you know which approach to adopt at this point in your life?

I naturally lean toward the micro way first. If that works, I’m all set. If not, adopting the holistic technique usually does the trick.

Question: So, what about you? What do you need right now? The Micro Way or the Holistic Way? You can leave a comment by clicking here.