The big power of thinking small (a lesson from the pointillists)

Want to change your life for the better in the new year? Tap into the big power of thinking small.

More specifically, take a lesson from the pointillists, the artists from a 19^th century school of painting who created their paintings by applying dots of color, rather than brush strokes.

When you look at the paintings up close, there is no rhyme or reason to it. It’s just a bunch of blobs of colors. But when you step back, an image emerges.

You can do the same thing with your life. Except instead of paint, the dots are small nuggets of whatever you want to experience more of.

For example, if you want to experience more meaning from making a difference, you can pay attention to the opportunities each day to have a positive impact. Or if you realize that you feel energized when you are in problem-solving mode, you can pay attention to the problem-solving opportunities that come up each day.

Taken individually, each of these “dots” don’t amount to much. But the more you consciously add them to the canvas of your life, the more they start to form a picture. In aggregate, your experience starts to change.

Why take a pointillist approach?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years of coaching, it’s that if you want to maximize the potential of making positive change actually happening, you need to make it easy. Take away as much of the friction and resistance as possible.

That’s why I love this approach. Let’s say you want to experience a greater sense of meaning in your life. If the only approach you consider is thinking big, that’s likely to feel like you need to make wholesale change.

And while wholesale change can be exactly what some people need, it can also limit your options, preventing you from seeing the value and potential in positive change at a more micro level.

But if you take a pointillist approach, not only are there more opportunities to experience meaning each and every day, there is more potential for that meaning to permeate your life.

To make it simple, let’s use that example of finding meaning in making a difference. Once you recognize the importance to you of making a difference, you can look for opportunities to do that every day.

They don’t have to be big and noteworthy. They can be as small as offering a piece of advice, helping someone carry a load to their car, or stopping and talking to a homeless person like an equal (because you are).

In fact, the little opportunities are where the big power is, because they don’t take a lot of investment of time and effort. They become easily-applied dots of meaning scattered throughout your days.

The more you pay attention to those opportunities, the more you start to see them. And the more you act on those opportunities, the more they start to merge and form a theme of “I make a difference.”

Not only that, as watching for and acting on chances to be helpful starts taking up more of your mental real estate, you start to shift how you see yourself and how you show up in the world. It goes from action to identity. From what you do (I make a difference) to who you are (I am someone who makes a difference).

Savoring

It’s not just the number of things you notice and act on that will have an impact. It’s also the quality of your attention.

Unless you consciously reinforce the positive experience, you’re missing out on a lot of the positive effect those “dots of paint” can have, both individually and collectively.

Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson talks about a practice he calls “taking in the good.” The idea is simple. Any time you have a positive experience, instead of just moving on to what’s next like we typically do, pause to savor it. Not long, maybe 20 or 30 seconds.

Over time, that wears a deeper groove in your brain (I know, not exactly a scientific description) from those good experiences.

How you can use it

You can take a pointillist approach to anything positive you want to incorporate more fully into your life. For example:

Feeling more energized

My definition of passion is “the energy that comes from bringing more of you into what you do.” One way I help people figure out how to do that is reverse engineering what they love to find the underlying themes of why they love it.

When they understand the underlying characteristics that tend to be there when they’re energized and engaged (the reasons why they love what they love), they can look for more opportunities to experience them.

For example, when I aim that reverse engineering process at the things that energize me, one of the big underlying characteristics that shows up nearly everywhere is a sense of exploration and discovery.

If I were looking at a career change, I could ask, “What kinds of careers involve exploration and discovery? But I can use it on a day-to-day level as well. Applying the pointillist approach, I could ask, “Where are the opportunities to experience more exploration and discovery?”

And once again, part of the magic comes from noticing and savoring. The more I notice and savor, the stronger its presence in how I experience my days.

Greater sense of connection

Another way you might apply it is to feel a greater sense of connection with the people around you. That could be with your immediate family and loved ones, your friends, your colleagues, even with people you meet randomly throughout your day (like a grocery store checkout clerk).

If you were taking a pointillist approach, you might ask, “What creates that sense of connection?”

The answer to that goes way beyond the scope of this post. With people in your intimate circle, it might be making it a point to tell them how you feel about them every day, or how they have had a positive effect on your life, or what you admire about them. Or taking the time to be curious, or celebrating their everyday accomplishments.

With friends, it might be about reaching out to connect more often, even if just for a quick phone call. With colleagues, it might be getting curious about what motivates them, or giving sincere compliments for something you see them do well.

If you have ever felt a sense of connection with someone you have just met, you know that you can even find connection with strangers (read about Barbara Fredrickson’s concept of positivity resonance for a better understanding of the opportunity and potential there).

Parting thought

Wrapping up, let me say that when I encourage you to think small, I’m not saying you shouldn’t think big as well. I’m suggesting that when the change you aspire to is limited to the big-thinking variety, you limit your ability to experience more of that positive change in the here-and-now.

This year, maximize your potential and possibility by thinking big AND thinking small.

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