In order to stay on track and maintain your pace, you have to make adjustments. If you’re on the highway and your lane suddenly slows down, you switch lanes, right? It’s a small, simple adjustment. Small, simple, regular adjustments are the key to consistent growth and progress.

Serial winners rely on small adjustments.

Small adjustments reduce the natural human resistance to change. We all resist change, so don’t try to deny it. There are very few people in the world who feel comfortable with change, especially big change. And sometimes we feel stuck because we’re resisting the big change we need to make. Unfortunately the longer we delay, the farther off course or off pace we get, and the bigger adjustment it takes to get us back on track or up to speed. One of the best ways to avoid the need for an overwhelming adjustment is to make smaller changes when we can and when we should.

Small changes also keep you from developing ruts. At work, if your goal is to head up a group or a team, maybe you regularly volunteer for different task forces. Maybe you could ask for a new responsibility or two, or spend some time researching solutions to some of the problems that the team might face. Make small adjustments that help you grow into the opportunity you want.

Serial winners make big, bold adjustments fast.

Sometimes in life, we get diverted or our attention drifts.

What might once have been a small problem has suddenly become a big problem—even an emergency. That’s when you’re going to have to make a big adjustment to get yourself back on track. Other times, something out of the blue happens that requires you to make a big, bold adjustment and fast. But most of the time, progress and success are about small adjustments.

Making adjustments pays off over time.

When you add up all the fine tuning serial winners do over a week, a month, or a year to overcome the series of small hurdles life puts in our way, you’ll see incredible improvements.

At any moment, you could be just one small adjustment away from a major success. If you can find a way to get a bit more organized, push yourself a little harder, bring another degree of focus to your work or goal, you might make it past the plateau or the obstacle and speed forward across the finish line.

This post is an adapted excerpt from my bestselling book, Serial Winner. If you’re a fan of the book, please leave me a review on Amazon! To learn more and get a copy of your own, click here!