If only it was that easy… Well, maybe it is –
The power of 4 replay – What if you could make 4 different choices TODAY that would make a difference in your health and fitness goals?? Interested … then read on 🙂
I recently attended a RCR chat with Valerie Waters which inspired me to write this post… So – what was the key take away for me??? The Power of 4.
Val is a huge lover of books. From a book she is currently reading The Family Dinners she shared some words of wisdom from Tom Hanks 2005 address to the Vassar College Graduates.
…..Not long ago I was reading about the problem of gridlock on the freeways of Southern California –the — the traffic jams which cripple the city, stranding millions and laying waste to time and energy and the environment. Gridlock is as serious and as impenetrable a problem as any we face, a dilemma without cure, without solution, like everything else in the world it seems.
Some smart folks concocted a computer simulation of gridlock to determine how many cars should be taken off the road to turn a completely jammed and stilled highway into a free-flowing one. How many cars must be removed from that commute until a twenty-mile drive takes twenty-five minutes instead of two hours? The results were startling.
Four cars needed to be removed from that virtually stuck highway to free up that simulated commute — four cars out of each one hundred cars. Four cars per one hundred cars; four autos out of every one hundred autos; forty cars from each thousand; four hundred out of ten thousand. Four cars out of one hundred are not that many. Two cars out of every fifty; one driver out of twenty-five drivers.
Now, if this — if this simulation is correct, it is the most dramatic definition in earthly science and human nature of how a simple choice will make a jaw-dropping difference to our world. Call it “The Power of Four.” One commuter in your neighborhood could put the rush back into rush hour. So, if merely four people out of a hundred can make gridlock go away by choosing not to use their car, imagine the other changes that can be wrought by just four of us — four of you — out of a hundred.
Take a hundred musicians in a depressed port city in Northern England. Choose John, Paul, George, and Ringo — you have “Hey Jude.” Take a hundred computer geeks in Redmond, Washington — send 96 of them home and the remainder is called “Microsoft.”
Take The Power of Four and apply it to any and every area of your concern.
Politics: Four votes swung from one hundred into another hundred is the difference between gaining control and losing clout.
Culture: Two ticket buyers out of 50 can make a small, odd film profitable.
Economics: By boycotting a product 1 consumer out of 25 can move that product to the back of the shelf, and eventually off it altogether.
Four out of 100 is miniscule and yet can be the great lever of the Tipping Point.
Another book that deeply resonated with Val was Animal Vegetable Miraclewhich she read a couple of years ago, her main take away was – that we place our vote every week at the supermarket by how we spend our dollars – meaning that you are casting your vote each week by what you buy or don’t buy, and that you can be 1 of the 25 that moves a product to the back of the shelf. By deciding not to buy that high fructose sugar fruit roll up that your kid wants – you are moving it to the back of the shelf. By not choosing the factory farmed meats, and buying grass feed organic meats, you are casting your vote to support farmers that raise their animals ethically. As consumers, and as women who mainly do the food shopping for our families, we have more power than we realize – what you do does matter, it matters that you go to the farmers markets each week, it matter that you spend a tiny bit more to buy organic to support those farmers, so that maybe the prices will eventually start to come down, it matter that we support the people who are doing it right, so we end up with more of them – you can make a difference, you can choose for change….. (a little Val’s rant I wanted to share – love her passion).
Interesting right, but why does this have to do with weight loss? Val’s next thought, which I loved – was wondering what would happen in our weight loss journey if we choose differently just 4 times a day…. could making the better choice just 4 times a day help alleviate the gridlock in our personal weight loss goals? For example – after work you are tired and don’t feel like going to the gym – should you skip the gym or choose to go? If someone leaves PB cookies in your work kitchen – do you have one or choose to walk away? If you are at work and have a snack attack, do you get the Snicker Bar or do you choose a healthy bag of mixed nuts? Can making the better choice just four times a day help you change your life for the better? Let’s play a little game – for the next few day’s make the better choice just 4 times a day and see if it makes a difference for you. I’d love to hear your results!!
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