Did you ever play Dominos? Remember setting them up in a long row or even in some pattern and then tapping the first Domino? All of them would fall one by one. The first one falling caused all the others to come down in sequential order. You can create the same Domino Effect in your life—for good or for bad.
When you take positive action, you create the potential for more positive action to follow. For instance, if you begin a new exercise program, you are more likely also to start a healthy eating plan. You may then choose to sleep more hours per night, purchase a standing desk, and cut down on your alcohol consumption. If you take a class that teaches you a new skill for your job, you may then read a book on the topic, implement new strategies at work, begin doing your job differently, or approach projects differently. If you decide to be more present in your relationships, you may find yourself being more appreciative of your significant other, being more demonstrative toward others, listening to others—and hearing what they say, and engaging with people in a more meaningful manner.
One action leads to another. It’s a real-life Domino Effect.
Of course, the Domino Effect works in negative ways as well. If you are a recovering alcoholic, you could decide just to have one drink…and that leads to another and another. If you get ill or busy and stop exercising, you might find yourself not sticking to your diet and then not using your standing desk. You can see how this principle works for bad and for good.
Therefore, if you want to improve your life, focus on where you can create a positive Domino Effect. Make a list of all the positive effects that could follow that one action. Line them up, so to speak. Then take the first positive action and see if you can’t get all the others to fall into place one by one.
Have you ever created a Domino Effect in your life? Tell me about it in a comment below.
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Hi Nina,
What a beautiful post and how inspiring. I love positive domino effects. I also think of them as butterfly effects. : ) One example I can think of as a domino effect is I also have another job where the environment is very low morale and negative. Staff are pretty unhappy unfortunately. 6 months ago I coordinated a wellness breakout session during our lunches and I continue to host them once a month. During the breakouts I touch on wellness topics but one thing I always do is hand out two pieces of paper with a fill in the blank statement on it and ask each person to take one of the pieces of paper and fill it out about the co-worker that is sitting to the left of them. Then, we do the same thing with the other paper but toward the person to the right of them. We then give the slips to our co-workers we wrote about and then share the positive statements our co-workers shared about us. Guess what? Morale is slowly changing around there.
The breakout sessions are continuing to grow with attendees each month and they are really learning alot about their co-workers. Since starting this, we now have developed a complete wellness club where all areas of wellness are being addressed. It’s really amazing how many people have gotten involved to make this go and become successful.
Thanks for sharing this great topic Nina. Have a great rest of the week. Keep smiling.
Irish