One obvious reason is that there are things that could and should be radically improved. But that might in theory be achieved smarter by ‘small steps’, ‘a smile a day’ or whatever.
Unfortunately I suck at this theory. There were a large number of intended improvements, preferably divided into not to painful steps, but somehow I handle small changes very badly. I tend to find reasons why the small step is so insignificant that I can easily postpone it till tomorrow.
If they work at all, things work better with zero tolerance. Some of the goals defined at 43thing follow that rule: lose 40 pounds, run a marathon. ‘Lose 10 pounds’ would not work, because it wouldn’t require drastic changes, ‘run regularly’ has not worked for years. The main problem seems to be that with any reasonable and balanced approach I still find ways to cheat myself out of it.
So far the success rate of radical self-improvements is not great. It’s actually rather depressing, but still better than the ‘step by step’ approach. So here it is again: Jump and fly. If you cannot fly, crash. Crash hard, whine some time, get up and jump again.
