We tend to spend our time and energy chasing the “Next Big Thing.” The next big love that will shake our core, the next big idea that will disrupt an industry, or the next diet or workout that will change our body forever.

However, experience indicates that either in love, business or health, success is a collection of “micro-moments” that compound on each other into meaningful sustainable progress. Rather than a magical “Eureka” instant, like the one Archimedes experienced thousands of years ago in Syracuse, it is the accumulation of micro-moments of love what sustain a relationship or the hours mastering a skill that make us successful in our career.

The same way money multiplies through compound interests, paying full attention to micro-moments in the here and now, and keeping them aligned with our vision, can have a significant positive impact on our health, business, relationships or when trying to form a new habit.

As BJ Fogg says in his book “Tiny Habits,” the best way to develop new habits, or change bad ones, is to start small and avoiding biting more than you can chew. If you want to run a marathon, instead of going all in for a week and give up on the next one, you can start by putting your shoes every morning and walking just 10 minutes a day. That’s doable right? Over the long run those 10 minutes will become 20′ then 30′ and the pace will evolve from walking to jogging to running. But first you have to start with something as simple as leaving your walking shoes near your bed, so this is the first thing that you see every morning. That will prompt your brain to move into action and take the first step. As Fogg says, you don’t want to kill a new tiny habit before it has a chance to grow.

A similar approach can be applied to relationships. Rather than focusing on a big magical moment that will save our professional or personal relations, it might be worth reflecting on these bonds as built by a collection of “micromoments”. Take a look at this charming You Tube video: L’amour dure 90 secondes (love lasts 90 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxo9YJhnG8&t=474s

In the world of business, the same logic applies. As David Robertson says in “The Power of Little Ideas,” while many companies and entrepreneurs focus on the next big disruptive idea, experience shows that, in most of the cases, the incremental improvements to existing processes or looking with fresh eyes the life-cycle, packaging or marketing of an existing product, are the ones that have the bigger impact in a company’s bottom line.

Regardless of your area of interest, it is worth considering that the road to success is made by a collection of micro-moments or, like a saying attributed to van Gogh indicates: “Great things are a series of small things brought together.”