Have You Had a Butterfly Effect in Your Life?

What is a Butterfly Effect?

The butterfly effect is defined as ” the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.” Basically, a small change can lead into large changes later. Have you had a personal butterfly effect experience?

A Comment at Breakfast

Around the spring of 1996, while working as a financial analyst in the Financial Planning and Analysis department at Hoffmann LaRoche in Nutley, our CFO started a project in which he hired an outside consultant, Mary. I still don’t know exactly what the project was for, but Mary sat in a cube outside of my office. One day I was eating a chocolate chip muffin for breakfast and Mary walked in and said , “Why are you eating a muffin? That is all fat calories for breakfast.” So I asked her what she was eating and she told me a Met-Rx protein bar. We also had a conversation on fitness – she lifted and I ran. So that honestly made me feel guilty about that muffin and I ran to the store and got some Met-Rx bars (I think chocolate chip and vanilla) that night.

That tiny remark – and soon I was eating Met-Rx bars daily – and my kids too. I would have them for breakfast – or a snack like dessert. From the same health company I ordered goji berries and goji juice and started including them in my diet for my running. Mary was long gone from my company and I even lost touch for many years, but her words stayed with me.

Much of the story that followed came together a few years later in 2013. My post about how I changed my circumstance is right here: Click Here But the seed for this butterfly effect started that day at Roche because of that 1 question. One of the reasons that Isagenix was so appealing to me as a nutritional product was that I was already using Met-Rx. Is was an evolution both nutritionally and even monetarily. I was already spending money in that direction – I just refocused it to something similar but better.

What Is The Butterfly Effect in Your Life?

Only you know what is the butterfly effect in your life. Maybe it happened like me a few years ago. Maybe it happened and you have not yet seen where all the ripples ended up yet. Maybe it is in the future – you just need to make that self-discovery to make it start. Who knows where it will lead as life is just crazy!

Trials of Miles,

Coach Nick

Nickolas Joannidis
Nickolas Joannidis
I have been running for over 35 years, having done practically every possible racing event or distance from the 100 meters through the marathon. I competed in varsity high school cross country and track at Saddle Brook High School in the mid-1980's, varsity cross country and track at Division II Pace University and finished well over 200 road races since then, including 20 marathons with a lifetime best of 3:14:50. I was the president of the Hoffmann LaRoche corporate running team for 7 years, growing the team from 25 to over 90 during his tenure. I coached many of these runners to achieve their goals, whether they were beginners or advanced. In 2011 I was an assistant coach for the Fair Lawn Recreation track team, helping the 10 to 14 year old group. I am currently personally coaching dozens of runners, from beginner levels to advanced levels and getting them to be prepared to meet their goals.

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