How to Guarantee Change

Whenever I meet with a couple preparing to get married, I share a piece of advice my rabbi shared with me: The little things are the big things.

This sounds trite, but it is true.

I point out that this wedding day is a big day. But it is only one day.

And marriage is thousands of days filled with little things: grocery shopping, driving, perhaps children, washing dishes, doctor visits.

Getting those things right in life matters much more than getting the floral arrangements right at the wedding.

In life, the little things are habits, and just like a marriage, a good life rests in consistent habits of commitment. Little things make up the big thing.

Just ask yourself: If you think of a healthy person, they probably have a habit of eating right and exercising.

If you think of someone who is organized, they have a habit of cleaning up after themselves and putting things away. Our habits define us to the world.

How Do We Change Our Habits?

So many times we ask this question. But you already know the answer. And you know how to start right away.

It begins with faith is the most transformative power for ordaining and nurturing our habits. One might say God works through making habits.

Indeed, study after study shows members of religious communities give more charity, volunteer more, and build stronger relationships than the unaffiliated. Faith cultivates positive habits.

It does so in three ways.