Just one more

I love to get outdoors for a jog -- who doesn't like the smell of the evening breeze and the sight of the crimson sunset skies? It energizes me and refills my positive ion reservoir, which gets depleted as the day wears on. Recently, I noticed that I've hit a runner's plateau -- I may look forward to getting out in the open, but that post-workout surge of endorphins seems to have all but disappeared. Sweating it out has strangely become less enjoyable, and I'm actually gaining weight in spite of my daily workout. Something ain't right. Gasp! 

Determined to find my mojo back, I began to look into ways to inject greater variety into my daily workouts. For a start, I alternated my daily outdoor jogs with treadmill running. This was surprisingly refreshing given that I have - for the longest time - been staunchly against being seen as a hamster on a gym wheel. And on those days when I go out for my outdoor jogs, I made a conscious effort to try out a new route - with the added bonus of seeing a new scenery. Not only did this help get me better acquainted with my neighborhood, the excitement of not knowing what will show up at the turn of the corner kept me perpetually curious, got my adrenalin rushing and motivated to go faster! Wanting to burn more calories, I decided to rough it out and push my limits by simply doing "just one more". Just one more push-up. Just one more pull-up. Just one more sit-up. Admittedly, the going was tough especially when the body was pre-conditioned to doing a set of routine exercises. But somehow, if you think about it, doing one more chin-up, pull-up or sit-up wasn't all that bad, as compared to doing say, fifty or a hundred more chin-up or burpee. "Just one more and I will be done for the day" was a common refrain that went through my mind when my body began to protest. Unknowingly, in a matter of three weeks, I soon found myself feeling lighter and somewhat fitter than before. I may not have rock-hard abs and vein-bulging biceps to show for it, but I definitely found myself feeling better and I attribute it to my "just one more" personal motto. 

I was on the treadmill the other day when I had an epiphany -- "just one more" could be applied to other areas of my life too! Just one more chapter of my textbook. Just one more enhancement to my website. Just one more tweet on Twitter. This process of doing things incrementally is actually very powerful. Imagine, if you were an entrepreneur, and were to make just one more tweak to your business daily, you'd have made a total of 365 improvements to your new venture in a year ! If everyone were to do just one more kind deed everyday, can you imagine how much better our society would become overtime? The math is simple; the idea is straightforward but the results are mind-blowing. Mentally, it persuades the mind and deceives it into thinking that just doing one more thing is a simple feat but completely ignores the power of compounding. I believe that if I were to continue to do "just one more" of whatever I am doing in my professional and personal life, I'd see my payback multiply a million fold in no time. 

When I go on my workout later, I plan to jog for one more minute; when I read my textbook tomorrow evening, I plan to read one more chapter. What would you do one more of today ?