One shot of heroin won’t make you an addict. One can of beer won’t make you an alcoholic. One bowl of calorie-dense fast food won’t make you overweight. But over time, you will become the embodiment of your small decisions. Indeed, it’s a tyranny of small decisions!
We don’t always get things right when the stakes are small. This is because the unhealthy options are in our faces; they are immediately available, and have properties that make them desirable. The benefits of the healthy options, on the other hand, are delayed.
The big, one-off decisions may affect the trajectory of your life, but it’s the small, recurring decisions determine its quality. You won’t get a house/spouse everyday. But you’d have to choose between eating junk/clean food; or drinking soda/water many times over.
Originally posted on Twitter, March 2023.