If you’re like most people, you probably have a few aspects of your life that you’d like to improve. When you think of all the changes you want to make, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. Maybe you want to start exercising regularly, eat healthier food, develop better relationships, and improve your financial situation. Thinking about all of these goals can be quite daunting! Each improvement on its own would be a big change and require a lot of effort, so how can you possibly improve them all at the same time? Fortunately, you don’t have to. You only need one small improvement to start building the momentum required to make massive changes in your life.

1) Personal growth is compounding

When you’re solving a jigsaw puzzle, how do you solve it? Do you try getting all the pieces in place at the same time? Of course not! You start with one piece at a time, and each one makes adding the next piece a little easier until you complete the puzzle. You need to think of your own personal growth in the same way. Each small change builds on the last and makes the next change even easier. The more changes you make, the more confidence you build and soon enough, you’re a totally different person. You’re no longer overwhelmed by your goals because you’ve experienced your own ability to achieve them. You know that when you make a decision, you follow through, because that’s what you need to do if you want to achieve your goals.

Start with the low hanging fruit. Find something small in your life that you can improve without a massive amount of time or effort, and commit to making it happen today. Maybe that means cleaning your house or going to the gym. The scale doesn’t matter as much as the completion. Most people are so overwhelmed by their collective goals that they don’t even start, but even the smallest changes can snowball into a new mindset that allows you to make more changes with less effort.

2) Train yourself to think like a winner

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the changes you want to make, there’s one simple reason: You haven’t trained yourself to think correctly about personal growth. You probably haven’t experienced enough self driven positive change to remember that success is just a state of mind. If you spend every evening binge watching Netflix and eating unhealthy food, you might be training yourself to be lazy.

Every time you have the thought “I should start going to the gym” but instead just keep watching Netflix, you’re actually conditioning yourself to believe that you’re powerless. You have admitted to yourself that you want something, but don’t have the conviction to follow through with it. You’re putting that attainable goal on a pedestal and turning it into a pipe dream. Conversely, every time you commit to something and follow through with it, you are training yourself to have confidence. Even the smallest commitment and follow through can be the spark that ignites your engine of growth.

3) Push through the initial pain

Starting something new can be difficult, but most things get much easier after you push through the initial pain. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that in the last six months I went from barely exercising at all and totally dreading the gym to working out 4+ days a week with very little effort. In fact, it requires almost zero mental energy to get myself to the gym now, because I’ve learned to associate it with all the pleasure of exercising instead of the pain. The first two months were tough because I wasn’t used to exerting that much energy and being sore, but then it completely changed. I had broken through the initial pain and I became excited to go, considering it a treat to my body and my mind.

Right now, in this moment, make a small commitment and follow through with it. Make a solid plan so you can’t just reason your way out of it. Book an appointment, book a class, call a friend and arrange a time to go to the gym together. Better yet, start right now. In this moment, you can make a decision to become the type of person who lives the life they want, and that change happens instantly when you truly commit to it.

Pat Kelly is a self improvement writer and host of The Pat Kelly Podcast and Youtube Channel. Find more content like this at www.patkellypodcast.com

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