Although there are some things not in your control, you have more control over the outcome (your healing) than you think. Faith plays a role in medicine. Part of it is documented in science as the placebo and nocebo effect. (It is so powerful that they have to account for it in most studies, to prevent it from skewing the studies.) Beyond science and medicine, your faith plays a much bigger role in your healing than you think. What is faith? It’s probably not what you think.
You’d be amazed that some not considered to be Christians actually have more faith than Christians who proclaim “I believe” on Sundays. This was also true when Jesus was physically down here on earth with us. Jesus came across some people who were not among people considered to be of God, but he was amazed at their faith. (Matthew 8: 5 – 13; Matthew 15: 21- 28)
So, what is faith? Faith is belief, but it’s more than that. In addition to belief, it’s…
If I want to be free, I got to be me. Not the me that you think I should be. Not the me that my wife or husband thinks I should be.
Not the me that people stereotypically thinks that a black woman, an Asian man, a black man, an Asian woman, a white woman, a Latina, a Latino, a white man,… should be. Not the me that my kids think I should be. If I got to be free, I got to be me. But I better know who “me” is. The best way to know that is to connect to the Creator.
Adapted from Bill Gove’s speech with my own additions
“Minding the millimeter” is a very important principle you must understand in many areas of life. It’s something you need to understand if you are dealing with diseases such as eye disease where your eye sight is in jeopardy (which I had experienced). It is something you must understand if you are building a business, running a business, or fixing a sinking business. You need to understand this principle if you are training in sports, especially professional sports. It’s also important to understand this if you are developing software or writing code. Whatever outcome you are striving toward, you need to understand the importance of minding the millimeter.
So, what exactly is minding the millimeter? Minding the millimeter, to put it simply, is minding or attending to the seemingly minor things that do not seem to matter much. However, the “minor” things add up to (or multiply into) major problems. The otherend is also true where, if you attend to the right “minor” things, they add up to the major accomplishment or outcome you are aiming for.
When people suffer from a loss (such as loss of eye sight from a disease, loss in business, loss in sports, or failure in school), often it may have been prevented if they did not neglect the millimeters, or the seemingly minor things. (Or they could’ve had a better chance if they did not neglect the millimeters.) Although neglecting the millimeter is usually not the sole cause of the problem, it is usually a contributing factor. Again, I must reemphasize that minor things add up or multiply into major things. Therefore, minding the millimeter is a crucial principle to put to practice in many areas of life, to prevent crises and to keep from disaster (or at least improve your chances).
Mark Cavendish is not alone as many past winners of the Tour de France also mind the millimeter adjustments. Every millimeter and every gram on the bike counts. Every second matters. Athletes who perform at the highest level in other sports are also just as meticulous in the smallest adjustments. In other sports such as running or swimming, a fraction of a second may mean the difference between a bronze medal and no medal at all.
Even one millimeter or one fraction of a second matters. It can mean the difference between getting a medal and losing a medal.
Phil Jackson, the former basketball coach who has won ten NBA championships, taught his players this importance of not neglecting the small things. He told them that a war is lost on a single nail of a ship. Apparently, this was programmed into the mind of Michael Jordan (the most notable player coached by Jackson). Michael Jordan won all six of his NBA championships under the leadership of Phil Jackson.
Even after Jordan retired from basketball and now running his own multi-million dollar company, he assures that the smallest details of the products with the Jordan brand are up to his standards. Also, he applies this same principle of minding the millimeter to other business entities he owns. Unbeknownst to many, Michael Jordan after retiring from basketball has now become just as successful in business as he was a basketball player. As a matter of fact, Jordan’s net worth has risen astronomically from when he had retired completely from the NBA. While most retired professional athletes’ net worth do not change much, Jordan’s impressive business performance increased his net worth so much that he has become a billionaire recently. ( He was a multimillionaire as an athlete, but became a billionaire as a business man. I do not know of any other professional athlete who became a billionnaire ten years after their retirement.) Jordan’s habit of minding the millimeter allowed him to produce intended results in basketball as well as in business.
Likewise, many of you are also great at your work in solving problems or in building something, and you understand exactly how the minor factors can synergistically add up (or multiply). Others of you understand this for other areas in your life, and you are great with those areas of your life.
However, those of you who understand how this principle applies to your work neglect this when it comes to another area, such as your health (or the medical problem you’re dealing with) whether it is eye disease, a severe infection of an organ, or another disease. You neglect this principle of minding the millimeter, and you erroneously think, “What does it matter? It’s only one small thing.”
As a result, you suffer unnecessarily, or you lose. For example, the eye patient who (after retinal detachment surgery) neglects one small thing such as adhering closely to the doctor’s instructions of what position to lie down and for how long. Or the patient not following the doctor’s exact instructions in how to take the post-surgery eye drops, how frequently to take them, and when to stop. Another example would be the patient neglecting overall health and nutritional practices (like adequate intake of fruits and vegetables known to be good for overall health and health of the eyes) because he thinks such indirectly related factors or “minor” factors don’t matter.
When unexpected complications occur after the eye patient neglect a millimeter here and a millimeter there, they end up losing eyesight. Neglecting small things may contribute to losing big.
Is it for certain that minding every significant millimeter would solve a problem or allow you to produce the desired outcome? No, it’s not a guarantee, but it significantly improves your chances if you mind the millimeter. Nothing in life is a guarantee. A professional athlete training for a championship is not guaranteed to win the gold medal, but it would be foolish for him to neglect the training and neglect the millimeter adjustments just because there’s no guarantee. Unfortunately, people have the foolish logic of not minding the millimeter just because there’s no guarantee.
As foolish as this is in sports, it’s even more foolish to neglect this principle of minding the millimeter when it comes to dealing with your medical problem, especially when what’s at stake is losing or keeping your eyesight, or when it’s life or death.
Another reason for this common fallacy (or error in thinking) is that one adjustment in itself or a small millimeter in itself does not solve the problem and therefore, why bother. This logic is flawed.
In the cases of the professional cyclists, they mind the millimeter adjustments even though any one small adjustment by itself does not directly make an impact. Again, all the small adjustments would add up or multiply, to make an impact indirectly or directly.
Maybe you are a computer programmer and you know that neglecting, or leaving out, a little part of the code can mean major problems, such as the whole application not working at all. Leaving out a small part of the code in one place, neglecting another small part here, and adding a wrong part there – would all add up to disaster. This is apparent if you are a good computer programmer or developer. Therefore, you are mindful of any “small” part of the code.
Whatever it is you are facing or whatever it is you are building or striving for, you must mind the millimeter. When you adjust for one millimeter here, another millimeter there, and one gram here, they will all contribute toward the outcome you want (whether it is to heal from a disease, to keep your eyesight, or to turn a profit for your business.)
“Minding the Millimeter” is a principle we all need to understand and apply in whatever we are striving for, whether it is to do well in school, to improve performance at work, to heal, to build a business,…
In your life right now, is there a bad habit or a bad pattern that you are trying to break, such as stuttering, eating too much of a certain unhealthy food, overeating in general, or any recurring behavior that is causing you misery in the long run? Is there an addiction that you are trying to rid, such as smoking, cutting, drinking, drug addiction, or any other type of common or uncommon addictions?
One of the first things you need to do before you break a pattern is to go back in time in your mind and remember when the pattern began.
The following video shows a thirty-year-old man, Rechaud, who has severely stuttered speech for most of his life and how he was guided by Anthony Robbins to think back and remember the time when his speech impediment started. The stuttering man remembered the time when he was around three years old when he watched a cartoon in the mornings where one of the characters with a speech impediment often yelled for help. During this time of this man’s early life, his father was physically beating his mom. As a child, he subconsciously started stuttering which presented a problem to distract his father from physically beating his mother.
Remembering this childhood memory was an important step toward stopping his lifelong pattern of severe stuttering. As a matter of fact, this man stopped stuttering from that day forward, after remembering when the stuttering started.
Remembering and Writing Exercise
For whatever pattern or habit you are trying to break:
Think back to the very first moment (or the time period) the pattern started and the brief period AFTER the pattern started. Even if you can’t remember a specific moment, remember the approximate time period. How old were you? Picture the environment you were in and the people around you. What did you look like? What did the people around you look like? What was happening in your life at the time? What were you doing? What were people around you doing? What or how were you feeling at the time? Remember and describe as much as possible.
Now think back at the time period BEFORE the pattern started that may have contributed to your unintentional adaptation of this pattern (or caused you to subsconsciously adapt this pattern.) What was happening in your life before the pattern started. Usually, we adapt these bad patterns to get away from pain or to survive (and also probably to obtain ephemeral pleasure).
If you want me to guide you with the next steps to break your bad habit or pattern, feel free to email me at healthsciencewriter@gmail.com with what you’ve written here. Be sure to title the email “Breaking a Pattern or Habit”.
Clarification for Possible Misunderstanding
Let me be clear in case there’s any misunderstanding. Not everyone will get results this quickly with just one step. Some will, but not everyone will. In other words, I am not saying that this exercise in remembering (and writing) is all you need to stop addictions or stuttering in all cases. Not at all. I am merely saying that this exercise is one step or one part of a whole set of strategies. Although this stuttering man was cured with this one step, many will require additional strategies. This is especially true with patterns like addictions. If you are trying to break your pattern of any type of addiction, this exercise in remembering should not replace conventional medical treatment. Instead, it should be used in addition to conventional and medically recognized treatment.
Note for Coaches, Teachers, Advisors, and Trainers
Put attention on what you want whenever it shows up. Notice when Rechaud said one phrase without stuttering, “Sign me up for that,” Tony stopped immediately to put both their attention on it.
“Say that again,” requested Tony. Tony was applying the principle of focusing on the behavior they want to grow (instead of focusing on what they don’t want) . In this case, you want the normal non-stuttering speech to grow (not the stuttered speech).
Get your client or student to put his mind on a model he wants to become (whether it’s a metaphorical model or an actual person). After Rechaud remembered the genesis of the problem (in his childhood) and after some strategies in releasing (that in Rechaud’s unconscious mind that had bound him in severely stuttered speech), Tony guided Rechaud to put Rechaud’s mind on the metaphorical model of person Rechaud wants to be, like the warrior “and the warrior never stutters.”
It’s been long overdue that I start blogging on WordPress. It’s common knowledge that the more serious bloggers (in the U.S.) are on WordPress. I am a beginner to WordPress, but I am not a beginner to blogging. The first blog I started was more than ten years ago. It was on Blogger, the very first blogging site ever. When I started using Blogger, it was not working well. So, I decided to use the web server at work to host my blog instead. I am not a tech person, but at the time, I was working for a biomechanics professor managing his lab at UC Berkeley and I also managed the lab’s web server, which was merely a Mac computer used as a web server.
(By the way, I found out years later why Blogger was functioning so poorly back then. That was the time when Blogger was in trouble and it had to get rid of everyone and only one person was left to run Blogger, the founder himself Evan Williams. I now know how he feels back then, but that’s another story.)
In response to my putting my blog on the webserver at work, you may be asking, “Wasn’t it inappropriate to put your blog on your job’s webserver?” Well, it wasn’t really that inappropriate since I was mainly blogging about science, and my job was in a science lab. Okay, it was a little bit inappropriate. 🙂 Looking back now, I definitely should not have done that. Anyway, putting my blog on that server I myself was managing was too cumbersome (especially for someone who is not a tech person.) So, I stopped blogging on that web server and I started using some online diary site instead, also because of the better and bigger community of diarists with very organized categories of topics. Also, I naturally wrote more personal entries on that online diary site.
It wasn’t until several years ago that I started using Blogger again. At the time, I already knew about WordPress and back then, it was already the more recommended site if you want to be a serious blogger. However, as a big fan of Google (which bought Blogger), I went with Blogger. I may tell you later on why I am finally starting this blog on WordPress. For now, let me introduce myself a little bit.
My pen name is Amadeo Constanzo and the most important thing about me is my relationship with God. Without Him, I would be in really bad shape right now. I am a follower of Christ. I am Christian. I’ve been a student of the Bible for more than twenty years. My work can be summed up with one word – SpirFit. My expertise is in three “separate” areas: (1)fitness and health, (2)mind development and education, and (3)spiritual life. If you want to find out more about me, my real name, and about how I can help you, feel free to go to:
SpirFit 