How to “one-more” and take advantage of incremental growth

Photo: Darwin Bell

How do you think those onions grew? Think about it.

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In college, I decided to start taking more classes per semester. I didn’t know how many more, but I wanted to push myself. So did I jump right into it? Well, yes and no.

I did immediately start taking more classes, but I didn’t jump right into a 21 unit, course load. Instead, I started with 14 units. Then I bumped up to 15 units. Then 18. Finally, I went for 21. (I would have tried more, but by then I’d graduated.)

The point isn’t how amazing I was in college. Other students thought I was insane because they were going full time at 12 units, but I knew the truth: the insane students took 25 and 26 units (and I’d heard of 35+ unit semesters).

The point is that I would have struggled (and yes, it would have seemed almost insane) to go straight from 12 to 21.

But I hardly noticed the one at a time increase.

One-more

I call this “one-moring.” One-more is a verb roughly meaning, “to add one more at a time until you totally obliterate your goal.” Something like that. So I could say, “I one-mored my college classes.”

I bet you’ve one-mored before. You just didn’t give it a ridiculous name. I like naming it because it makes me more aware of it and helps me remember to use it more often.

One-moring works because it helps alleviate the fear of scary big change. You can’t always take a leap, but you can always step just once more.

Some examples to try one-moring

  • One-more the games you play with your children
  • One-more your attendance at church meetings per month
  • One-more the dollars you tithe
  • One-more the books you give away
  • One-more your date nights with your spouse
  • One-more the compliments you share each day
  • One-more the hours you spend volunteering

The possibilities for one-moring are almost endless.

(Oh, and you can one-less too. Say one-less your Coke consumption per week or one-less your cursing for the month.)

Encourage others to one-more

One of my favorite parts about one-moring is its effectiveness for encouraging others. You can almost always encourage someone to one-more (for the same reasons it can work for you).

One-moring isn’t always the best strategy. Sometimes the outrageousness of an audacious goal is what sparks your enthusiasm to follow through with it. But when you’re not going to do anything otherwise, try one-moring it – try encouraging someone else to one-more.

You might find one more isn’t enough. Just like those onions, which grew one layer at a time.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) One-more something. Anything (but I suggest one-moring an activity that serves others like the examples I gave).

(2) Have you ever one-mored before? Share a story about how it worked for you. Stories are always an encouragement for those who are still considering it.