The Butterfly Effect of Mindfulness: Small Acts, Profound Impact

Do you believe in the power of small acts and how they can impact your daily lives? 

In this episode, we'll talk about the concept of the butterfly effect and its connection to mindfulness. Discover how small changes, practiced through mindfulness, can have a profound impact on your life. Sit back, relax, and join us on this journey of self-improvement.

Introduction (00:00)
The Butterfly Effect Explained (01:05)
Applying the Butterfly Effect to Finances (02:50)
Relating Mindfulness and The Butterfly Effect (04:34)
The Power of Present-Moment Awareness (07:01)
Working Smarter, Not Harder (09:03)
Understanding The Negative Chaos Theory (10:53)
Creating Positive Compounding Results (12:28)

Transcript

0:00

How you can use mindfulness now, in fact, it's the whole punchline of the podcast, which is teach you how to exist today. So that you can expand tomorrow. So that line right there is a butterfly effect. It's this concept of using mindfulness to be present in the moment so that you can execute upon decisions that need to be made that seem small now, but will have a ripple effect and will become much larger or much more impactful over time. Hey everyone, welcome to the end game podcast, where I bet you don't know. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur. I'm here to talk to you today about the idea of the butterfly effect. And how small changes specifically around the idea of mindfulness can make profound impacts. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. So as I've mentioned, we're going to talk today about this concept of the butterfly effect. And for those of you who are moviegoers, A couple of decades ago, I know there was a movie about this. And the concept here really boils down to which was originally thought to be part of chaos theory or is part of chaos theory, which is very small imbalances or changes within an ecosystem or within an environment can over time or over distance turn into something dramatically more. And so the concept that a butterfly could flap its wings halfway around the world, and it could through a series and chain of events due to imbalances or shifts in the ecosystem could actually land at You know, something as large as a hurricane or a tropical storm. And so that concept, although maybe not new to you is certainly one that as we think about how you make incremental changes in your business or how you make changes over time in your health or in your mindset. That it really does begin with taking baby steps. You've, we've talked before about the concept of journaling and how we could take seemingly insurmountable tasks and chunk them down into pieces that over time you can create notable impact. And really that is largely the same here. This idea that over time with one change now and another change tomorrow in this domino effect, you can create something much, much larger in the future that can feel completely unattainable today. The theory is also incredibly important to understand as you think about your financials. The very well established concept of compounding interests. You know, if you were to go to a compounding interest calculator and put in a hundred dollars at 20 years old into a 401k or some sort of whole life insurance policy, and then look at that money, it's not time in the market. It's there's not time on the markets time in the market, right? So it's amount of time you spend or the money spends compounding interest over time. And what seems like a very small investment earlier in your life will turn into a much larger investment over time as compared to trying to start, you know, if you were to put 100 in a 20 as compared to putting a million dollars in at 40 and I don't know the exact math here, but the, the idea is you actually might end at the very same amount of money with two notably different investments based on time, time in the market based on that compounding interest principle. And so as we think about, again, how do we kind of bring that back to not just your financial situation and your 401k and personal finances or business finances. But how do you bring that back to your own business successes or your own health set or your own mindset? And as you know, as a psychiatrist, I focus very heavily on all of those things, but I take a particular interest in the, in the mindset area. And so one of the ways we do that in terms of making dramatic mindset shifts that are not going to happen overnight in this idea of the butterfly effect. I want to talk to you today about mindfulness and how you can use mindfulness and what mindfulness means and how you can use it. And I've talked about it before, but I'm going to solidify it today, how you can use mindfulness now. In fact, it's the whole punchline of the podcast, which is teach you how to exist today. So that you can expand tomorrow. So that line right there is a butterfly effect. It's this concept of using mindfulness to be present in the moment so that you can execute upon decisions that need to be made that seem small now, but will have a ripple effect and we'll become much larger or much more impactful over time. So I think that understanding the butterfly effect and the ripple effect and compounding interest in principle for the principles thereof, I think is clearly something you all have heard of. How do we do that as it relates to mindset? You've heard me say mindset and health center intertwined, right? The mind body connection, the human biome. Physical health and mental health are intimately intertwined. And so as we think about how we change mindset in increments and with ripples. In theory will impact or can impact your health set too. So mindfulness is really this theory or principle or technique where you truly end up putting yourself into the moment, right? So meditation is an incredibly well established, well studied mechanism through which one can achieve mindfulness. In fact, if you look at a lot of the religion in the spirituality and just theory again around Meditation. It's very much about this idea of cleaning the brain, right? So cleaning your thoughts. You're not distracted. You're not 10 steps ahead. You're not worried about yesterday's bills. It's this concept of putting yourself in the moment. Using the senses to be in the moment to be quiet, quiet minded, and by cleaning out all the clutter in the mind, by cleaning out all of the racing thoughts, which is a term that's thrown around so often and appropriately, but as you think about how you quiet the mind, and really be here in the moment now. That you're more capable of making important decisions, right? If you think about there's actually no such thing as being able to multitask and people get this wrong all the time. Oh, they're really good multitasker. What we know by science is actually there's no such thing as multitasking. You literally cannot do two things at the same time. Your brain is very capable and is incapable of doing that. What you can do, though, is you can rapidly shift focus. And those individuals who can shift focus more rapidly And sustainably are those who we perceive to be multitaskers bringing that back. When we think about mindfulness, we think about meditation, we think about being present in the moment when you can clear your head of all the stuff, all the junk, all the BS. I say the belief systems, when you can clear your mind of all of that chaos; chaos theory. Then you truly can be without distraction and create an incredible impact in your business, in your personal life, professional life, et cetera, et cetera. So mindfulness is a technique that is incredibly important to work toward. We're not, I'm not asking you to become a yogi master. I'm not asking you to become a buddhist in a Tibetan monk meditating for days at a time. However, if you can implement just a little bit of that in your day to day or start the day off in a mindful state, or do one of these, you know, do some meditation first thing or do some yoga that you can put your mind in a calm state and in an undistracted state. And then you can make decisive decisions that then will have a ripple effect and create ultimate or can create ultimate success in your business, in your personal life, in your finances, et cetera. So again, the idea that going back to the tagline of the podcast, this idea of being able to ground yourself in the moment now, teach you how to exist today. So that you really have the opportunity to expand tomorrow. And by the way, that doesn't mean in order to do double, you have to work double hard, right? That's the idea of the butterfly effect or the ripple effect that one little thing compounded over time can actually create double the amount of outcome without doing double the work. So we talk a lot about how we can get someone to working smarter, not harder. Working smarter often involves working in an undistracted state, in fact, if you listen to the last podcast, we actually went through the different parameters where something might be urgent versus important and how you really allocate your energy and your time towards the things that create the biggest downstream effect and really try to avoid or offload the things that might be fires every day, but they're not, you know, they're creating the chaos. They're creating the distraction. They're not allowing you to go out and execute on your highest and best use of time. Therefore you're not getting the end game. You're not getting the outcomes. You're not getting the results that you ultimately want to get with the amount of time you have, right? Another important theory or our concept is that we really manage our energy. We really shouldn't be managing our time, right? Where you choose to put your energy and how much energy you choose to put towards that thing will ultimately impact how what happens with that thing. And again, if we think about butterfly effect, if we think about small changes undistracted state, making decisions when you're not in the mode of chaos. In creating positive compounded results over time. Keep in mind, the very same thing could happen in the negative chaos theory, butterfly effect, wings flap, hurricane happens. So imbalances or small incremental changes in the wrong direction can have compounding effects in the negative way too. So again, if you think about your business, if you think about your personal life, I'm sure all of us have examples where you've made kind of small incremental bad decisions that had a ripple effect and that created a much larger compounded negative outcome than anyone could have ever imagined. And so it's always important to understand that these things really do cut both ways. And the more we can be mindful have a good health set and focus our energy on the positives and how we compound in the right direction, not the wrong direction. The more likely we are to be successful in our businesses, in our careers in our personal lives, et cetera, et cetera. Small daily acts can compound to become incredibly powerful things. And as I've said before in a prior podcast, you have to start somewhere. So again, it might feel insurmountable. It might feel unattainable. It might feel impossible. You don't ever get anywhere until you take that first step and baby steps turn into strides, turn into the crawl, walk, run, the ripple effect, the butterfly effect. In conclusion, I wanted to bring to you this concept a little bit more tangibly of mindfulness again to find that a bit better. Help you understand where positive mindfulness, positive energy can lead you over time, even without having to work doubly hard to get double the outcome. Kind of redefining butterfly effect, this concept of compounding interest and compounding events or compounding actions and then ultimately how you do small things today, chunk it down use mindfulness as part of your daily practice. So you put your body, your mindset, your environment in a clear non chaotic, undistracted state so that you're capable of making really lifelong changes with very small steps today. So with that, I will let you guys go. If you'd like today's podcast, please don't hesitate to subscribe, share, tune in. Again, I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, a board certified psychiatrist and successful entrepreneur. And again, I'm here to teach you how to exist today so that you can expand tomorrow and create the ultimate end game of your wildest desire. I'll talk to you soon.