The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.

~ Mark Twain, American Writer

People often comment that they appreciate the “1° shifts” or “tiny next steps” I share at the end of each podcast episode. They find these suggestions provide a pragmatic approach when feeling overwhelmed.

Given their popularity, I’ve decided to compile some of my personal favorites here. This collection is for those who don’t listen to the podcast and for regular listeners who might appreciate a refresher on some previously discussed “1° shifts.”

But first  – why experiment with 1° shifts at all? 

What’s a 1° shift? 

A 1° shift is useful for making life changes for three main reasons:

1. When stress levels are already high, piling on more tasks to accomplish is often counterproductive. What’s more helpful is right-sizing it for one’s nervous system.
2. We sometimes confuse goals with vision, making our goals too big to attain, which discourages us from trying. The key is to set tiny goals to shift ourselves out of inertia and allow us to build momentum gradually, much like developing muscles before taking on a heavier load to avoid injury. This strategy is especially crucial when developing new habits.
3. We want our habits to stick. Major changes can disrupt established routines, particularly when other demands increase. Tiny shifts are more sustainable and easier to integrate into our daily lives, allowing us to stack and build on them over time.

Defining “1-degree”

Each of us defines what a 1° shift feels like as we create our tiny experiment. Our 1° can encompass more when we have greater capacity (ability, bandwidth, or resources) compared to when our capacity is limited. To determine your 1° shift, focus on what feels 90% feasible for you on a given day, rather than the objective size of the goal or how it appears to others.

The outcome of practicing 1° shifts

The idea is that by taking tiny steps consistency, over time, you’ll:

• Build capacity 
• Make impactful changes that otherwise would feel overwhelming
• Change your final destination (Like gradual 1° coordinate shifts in flight)

Five 1° shifts

Below are five examples of tiny shifts in different areas that can change the trajectory of anyone’s life over time. We frame these shifts as experiments to encourage us to:

• Keep an open mind
• Observe what you notice
• Gather data to inform your next steps

1. Let your values decide for you 

1° experiment: allow one of your values to make your next decision today.

On the surface, daily decisions may seem insignificant, but they are powerful micro-moments that can redirect our destiny. These choices influence outcomes and shape the experiences we want in life.

However, decision-making requires energy that sometimes we would rather conserve, so we lean on what’s most convenient, the path of least resistance, or habitual patterns and muscle memory. The problem with this strategy is that what’s familiar doesn’t always serve us as our life evolves.

If you question whether you’re making the best decisions for yourself, experiment with this concept by letting your values guide a low-risk decision today—perhaps what to have for lunch, how to approach a conversation, or how to spend your downtime.

Instead of defaulting to your usual patterns, pause and intentionally choose one of your top values to guide your decision. For example, if “energize” is one of your top five values:

• Choose food that will boost your energy rather than cause a post-lunch crash
• Approach conversations in a way that leaves you feeling refueled, not depleted
• Use your downtime for activities that lift your spirits rather than numb or bore you

Begin with smaller decisions and notice how you feel about the outcome before experimenting with bigger ones. Our decisions tend to work out better for us and feel more satisfying when they align with what we value. 

2. Do more of what you love 

1° experiment: what’s one thing you can do today that will allow you to experience peace, love, joy, or curiosity?

From an early age, many of us were taught to pursue “success” by grinding through tasks we didn’t enjoy. While this approach can teach the value of hard work, any strength can become a double-edged sword if overused without balance.

The key is to ensure that joy and love are part of the equation alongside discipline and grit—a lesson often overlooked when we learn about the importance of hard work. Grit and discipline become even more powerful when applied to pursuits we genuinely care about and love.

If this resonates with you and you want to create more balance, focus on doing more of what you love. Notice what gives you joy, sustains your attention, and sparks your natural curiosity—then dial up more of it in your daily life.

Also notice the opposite – what’s boring, negative, doesn’t feel good, or depleting and dial down those activities. 

For example, even if you can’t immediately leave a job you don’t love, you might find ways to rebalance your role. Negotiate for more aspects that interest you and fewer that don’t, through rotation, temporary coverage, delegation, cross-training, or even a sabbatical to spend time exploring other possibilities.

As for outside of work, how can you upgrade your downtime? Instead of defaulting to more of the same Netflix, social media, or unfulfilling group chats, can you repurpose that time for activities that you love? Maybe it’s meeting with a hobby group, walking in nature, playing with your pet, gardening, stretching, creating art, cooking, strength-training, volunteering, or something else you love.

3. Recognize when you’re delightfully challenged versus overwhelmed

1° experiment: Take a pause and notice if you’re delightfully challenged or overwhelmed

There’s an interesting tipping point when it comes to stress. Psychologists have found that while we need a little stress to help us focus and stay engaged, there’s a point where that beneficial challenge can turn into overwhelm.

When overwhelmed, we’re no longer able to do our best work or be our best selves. Our prefrontal cortex, or logical thinking brain, is put on pause as we switch to survival mode, driven by automatic, fear-based reflexes.

In polyvagal theory terms, when we’re overwhelmed, we fight, flight, freeze, and appease. In more colloquial terms, these survival reflexes translate to behaviors we recognize as obnoxious, aggressive, defensive, avoidant, passive, shortsighted, inauthentic, or disingenuous. We can all agree that these aren’t modes that allow us to show up as our best selves.

Everyone’s nervous system is different, so there is no objective tipping point that can be accurately applied across the board. This is why some people find roller coasters delightful and others are overwhelmed by them. Even the same person can change the way they experience the same roller coaster at different points in their lives. This means we want to get into the habit of checking in with ourselves daily –  are we being delightfully challenged or is this too much, too soon, or too fast, creating a sense of overwhelm?  

While being overly challenged can, when used intentionally, become a tool for learning, growth, and strength-building, we should choose when and for how long we expose ourselves to the overwhelm. If left unmonitored, we risk tipping the scale into burnout.

4. Reclaim your choice

1° experiment: Intentionally exercise your choice at least once today, and acknowledge yourself for choosing what’s best for you. 

Every choice is an opportunity to exercise agency and express our personal truth and sovereignty. When we reclaim our choices, we reclaim our role as the author, director, and creator of our lives. 

We exist in a culture where various entities, consciously or unconsciously, seek to claim our agency for their own sense of security or benefit.

Sometimes these entities use aggressive and threatening approaches to usurp our personal power. Other times, we’re misled into believing someone else knows what’s best for us, causing us to relinquish our ability to choose for ourselves.

These entities aren’t elusive metaphors. They are our parents, teachers, and friends when we’re young; our significant others, in-laws, bosses, physicians, institutions, and the government as we get older.

The over-stepping into our truth and decision-making isn’t always intentionally ill-willed by these entities, although sometimes it can be. Many times it’s projections of their wishes and fears onto us, sometimes tradition, other times the system, and often the cultural and societal norm.

There might have been a time when we were too young or inexperienced to decide for ourselves and even wanted or needed someone else to decide for us. However, we’re no longer that child; it’s time to reclaim our choices and take control of our lives.

What we’re reclaiming is the ability to choose and decide what’s true and best for us in any situation – at home, at work, or in our relationships. Even when we’re under constraints, our thoughts and actions, at the very least, are always ours to own.

Daily, you’re presented with opportunities to exercise your choice in areas such as:

• Your preferences
• Your beliefs
• What you want to focus on
• Whether or not you want to show up
• How you want to show up
• Whether to share your perspective
• Advocating for what you believe
• Asking for what you need 
• Reaching out for support
• Subscribing or unsubscribing
• How you want to spend your time
• What you want to learn
• How you want to help
• Who you want to be around
• What you want to experience

Whatever it is, you always have a choice, even if from the outside it looks like everything is the same. You can reclaim your agency by simply choosing a different thought.

Sometimes that might also mean choosing to:

• Take a pause
• Create space to explore
• Get to know yourself and what you really want
• Give yourself permission to experiment with different ideas
• Disagree with the mainstream
• Change your mind as you gain more information
• Pick what works best for you

Because you belong to yourself above anyone else.

5. Ask yourself, “How is this meaningful to me?”

1° experiment: before you do anything today, ask yourself “How is this meaningful to me?”

When we run on autopilot, we can find ourselves experiencing two strange phenomena that are two sides of the same coin. The metaphorical coin being lack of meaning.

On one side, we might notice procrastination in certain tasks – delaying or avoiding things on our to-do list. On the flip side, we might notice an inability to stop chasing and slow down, accumulating accomplishments or things that don’t make us any happier.

By honestly declaring what’s meaningful and inherently meaningless to us, we can better prioritize our energy and time, shifting from:

• Adding more items to an overwhelmed schedule to prioritizing what matters most
• Acquiring more coping tools to using tools to plan for fulfilling change
• Gunning for a promotion that will drain us to applying our talent to pursue what naturally inspires and energizes us

To escape this jarring loop that has us alternating between braking (procrastination) and acceleration (chasing) from moment-to-moment (and sometimes even at the same time – ouch!), we want to focus on dialing up meaning – choosing better over more (of the same).

For a tiny experiment, ask yourself before you do anything today: “How is this meaningful to me?”

Possible responses can sounds like:

• It nurtures my wellbeing
• It supports my learning and growth
• It makes me happy
• I like it
• It’s aligned to my values
• It brings me peace
• It makes me feel alive
• It’s a new adventure
• It allows me to experience more beauty
• It aids my healing
• It supports my vision and purpose

If you realize what you’re doing isn’t meaningful, ask yourself, “How do I make this a little more meaningful? Or what’s a more meaningful alternative I can choose—as the author, director, and creator of my life?”

Final thoughts

These 1° changes create the pause and space to live and work consciously rather than on autopilot, disrupting outdated strategies that may have once served us, but are now less helpful. 

Remember, while these 1° changes may feel small and insignificant in the moment, their compounding effects as you build on incremental steps can dramatically alter the course of anyone’s life over months, years, and decades.

Anyone can steer themselves toward a future that aligns with their deeper aspirations by making intentional shifts in daily habits exercising:

• Value-driven decisions
• Heart-based prioritization
• Nervous system regulation
• Personal agency
• Meaningful time and energy allocation

Moving in 1° or tiny steps allow you to engage with the essence of what you want while collecting data, and informing your next step. By taking the smallest 1° step, you may not feel like you’re not doing anything different, thus not creating overwhelm in your system. Although after a week, a month, or a quarter of experimentation, you might look back at your starting point and realize your growth and progress that ultimately leads to transformation.

If you sense resistance to any of these experiments, notice them. It’s natural if it’s there – that part has been looking after you for a very long time, and would make sense if it’s skeptical or nervous that you’re playing with a new strategy. Often keeping an experiment small, confined to a timeline (e.g., for this week), and reminding yourself experiments serve the purpose of collecting data to inform the best decision you’ll make for yourself, helps with the resistance.