I’m sure this sounds familiar: you start the year with a long list of resolutions, or after a period of feeling stuck and making no progress, you finally decide to change everything. “This time for real,” you tell yourself, reaffirming your decision and giving yourself a pep talk.
Perhaps you consider eating better, exercising, meditating, reading more, stopping procrastination, taking that trip you’re always putting off, or even changing jobs… But then, even though you get down to work and do things to move forward, you feel like nothing changes significantly. This paralysis amidst progress isn’t accidental; behind it lies the concept of the “threshold of change.”
What exactly is the threshold of change?
The term threshold of change is commonly used in Economics and Ecology to refer to the critical point or limit from which a system, process or individual experiences a significant or qualitative transformation.
In psychology, I apply this to the minimum effort needed to surpass the tipping point, beyond which we observe a substantial change that generates a real impact on our lives. Obviously, this threshold isn’t a rigid line (it’s not that you have to reach 51% on all your goals), it’s more of an elastic line that adjusts to each goal, as you can see in the graph below.
The problem is that before reaching that threshold of change, we have to make a lot of effort and we will feel that we are making little progress, simply because the quantity or quality of the actions has not yet surpassed the tipping point for a significant change to occur.
Why doesn’t every effort lead to transformation?
One of the most common mistakes we make is thinking that any action will do. We believe that a little of this and a little of that is enough. We eat a little better, do some exercise, try to reorganize our routines, and wait (crossing our fingers) for the radical change we so desperately crave.
But the hard truth is that to achieve significant progress we have to overcome a certain threshold, and that means that a minimum of intensity and consistency is usually not enough to trigger a major transformation. Don’t get me wrong: it’s better to introduce positive changes into our daily lives, even small ones, than to continue replicating bad habits, but…
- Eating an apple a day when the rest of your diet is a disaster won’t make a substantial change.
- Going to the gym every day, but spending more time talking to friends or looking at your phone than training, won’t give you the body you want.
- Spending 15 minutes planning your day and then spending hours jumping from one task to another without order or priority will not significantly increase your productivity.
- Trying to have a deep conversation with your partner once a week while the rest of the time you’re distracted by your phone or other things won’t strengthen the relationship much.
Personal transformation doesn’t work in a linear fashion. Doing a little of this and a little of that may not be enough to overcome the change threshold for each specific goal. Every goal has its own tipping point, and until you reach it, your effort is diluted and your progress is minimal.
The 2 main reasons why we struggle to reach that threshold
When we want to achieve substantial change, we have two major enemies: demotivation and dispersion.
Our brain tends to seek quick gratification and is easily distracted, and modern life doesn’t exactly make it easy for us because, in addition to bombarding us with hundreds of stimuli every day, it also pressures us to set dozens of goals at the same time.
The result?
We spread our energy across too many goals, so none of them receives enough of a push to overcome the threshold of change. And when significant transformations don’t happen as quickly as we’d like, we become discouraged and give up. We don’t understand that some changes require accumulated or sustained effort before we see their effect.
How to reach the threshold of change?
To reach the threshold of change, you don’t need to perform miracles or have superpowers; you just need to understand which actions generate a real impact and focus your energy on them for a sufficient amount of time. It’s as simple (and yet as difficult) as that.
Calculate the critical stress level
Often, the enthusiasm of the moment leads us to be overly optimistic. And that causes us to set unrealistic goals. Therefore, it all begins with an objective reflection on how much time, energy, or dedication the goal you’ve set for yourself truly demands.
If you are aware of the effort required, you can adjust your expectations, plan more realistically, or even consider abandoning that goal (something that is also valid if you want to concentrate your efforts on another more relevant or priority goal).
Prioritize what’s most important
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make time and time again is wanting to change everything at once. Basically, they’ve spent half their lives lying on the couch, eating pizza, and procrastinating, and the next day they want to have Schwarzenegger’s body, learn to play guitar, become strict vegans, and run a marathon.
Some people succeed (it has to be said), but most don’t. So many changes exhaust you and divert your resources, preventing you from achieving anything truly transformative. For this reason, even if you want to radically change your life, it’s usually better to take it one step at a time. And that means prioritizing.
Identify one or two truly important goals right now. This isn’t about abandoning everything else, but about focusing your energy where it will have the greatest impact. The impact-effort matrix, often used in business to identify the simplest actions with the biggest impact, can be helpful in this regard.
Simply place your goals in each quadrant to gain clarity on the level of effort required in relation to their impact. From there, you can decide whether those goals are worthwhile.
In short, the concept of a change threshold teaches us that we must be persistent and more mindful of where we direct our energy. This will free us from the overload and frustration of doing so many small things that don’t change much, paving the way to achieve what we desire (perhaps not everything, but at least the most important things).
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