The Domino Effect of Fitness: Why Most People Miss Their Goals (And How Small Wins Become Big Results) | FIT
At the beginning of the year I started reading a book called “The One Thing”. At the very beginning the Domino Effect is explained. The cliff notes is this — in ‘83 Lorne Whitehead found that a single domino can bring down another domino that is actually 50% larger. in ‘01 a physicist from San Francisco’s Exploratorium reproduced this experiment — the first domino was 2 inches tall, the last was 3’ tall!
Most people do not fail at fitness because they lack desire. They fail because they misunderstand causality. They believe results are produced by intensity, willpower, or “finally getting serious,” when in reality, results are produced by sequencing. Fitness is not a single heroic decision, it is a chain reaction. The question is never, “Do you want it badly enough?” The question is, “Are you knocking down the right domino first?” Lucky for us, the first domino is always the smallest!
In The One Thing, Gary Keller describes success as a domino effect: one small action knocks down the next, which knocks down the next, and so on, until the final outcome looks disproportionate to the initial effort. The concept is deceptively simple, but its implications are enormous. It reframes achievement as a process of leverage rather than brute force. This is exactly why it applies so cleanly to fitness, where the gap between what people know and what they do is not usually an information problem. It is a systems problem.
Fitness outcomes, whether fat loss, muscle gain, performance improvement, or simply feeling better in your own body, rarely arrive as a result of one massive decision. They emerge from a sequence of smaller decisions that create momentum. Conversely, most fitness setbacks are not one catastrophic event. They are the accumulation of tiny compromises that gradually shift a person away from the behaviors that created progress in the first place. The domino effect works in both directions, and most people are living inside one without realizing it.
Why People Aim at the Wrong Domino
When someone decides they want to “get in shape,” they tend to aim for the final domino. They want the visible outcome: leaner physique, stronger lifts, higher energy, confidence in their clothes, the ability to keep up with their kids, or the athleticism they feel they lost after high school or college. None of those goals are wrong. The mistake is assuming that the final domino can be knocked down directly.
This is where most people unknowingly sabotage themselves. They begin with a plan that matches the intensity of their ambition, not the reality of their schedule, recovery capacity, and behavioral history. They adopt an approach that requires perfect execution: six training sessions per week, a rigid meal plan, daily cardio, no social flexibility, no missed workouts, and a level of emotional bandwidth that only exists in a life without deadlines, children, or stress.
For a short time, it feels exhilarating. There is novelty. There is urgency. There is still motivation. There is the psychological high of “I’m finally doing it.” But novelty is not the same as sustainability. When the first inevitable disruption arrives, a late workday, a sick child, a bad night of sleep, a stressful week, the entire plan collapses because the person has not built a system that can absorb real life. Instead of adapting, they interpret the disruption as failure. They miss one workout and mentally downgrade themselves from “committed” to “not disciplined.” They eat one imperfect meal and assume the plan is ruined. The plan breaks because it was never built for a normal human schedule.
The domino effect fails not because the person is weak, but because the first domino was too big.
The Negative Domino Effect: How People Quietly Drift Off Course
For our domino model to be true — the inverse model function as well. Fitness failure is rarely dramatic. It is usually subtle. It starts with something that feels harmless and ends with someone saying, “I just need to get back on track.” The problem is that “track” is not a place you return to, it is a path you maintain.
Consider how easily a negative chain reaction can begin.
A person stays up late, not because they made a conscious decision to self-sabotage, but because they wanted to decompress. One more episode. One more scroll. One more video. That small decision becomes the first domino. Sleep quality drops. They wake up tired and rushed. Breakfast becomes an afterthought, or worse, a sugary convenience. Energy and mood fluctuate throughout the day. Cravings intensify by mid-afternoon, and stress tolerance decreases. Training, which requires effort and intention, feels like a burden rather than a release. They skip the session “just today.” They feel guilty. They tell themselves they will start tomorrow, but tomorrow arrives with the same fatigue and the same stress, and the pattern repeats.
This is not laziness. This is physiology and psychology interacting exactly as expected. A tale as old as time. Sleep deprivation alters appetite regulation, decision-making, and perceived effort. Stress increases the likelihood of short-term reward seeking. Fatigue reduces the brain’s capacity for delayed gratification. In other words, once the first domino falls, the next few fall more easily. The person begins making choices that are less aligned with their goals, not because they lack intelligence, but because their environment and energy state are pulling them in the opposite direction.
The most frustrating part is that the person may not even notice the chain reaction until it has already gained momentum. They simply feel like they are “off.” But being “off” is rarely a mystery. It is usually a predictable outcome of the dominos that fell earlier.
The Positive Domino Effect: How Real Transformations Actually Happen
The positive version of the domino effect is not glamorous, which is why it is rarely marketed. It does not start with a dramatic cleanse (you PROBABLY don’t have a parasite), a new identity, or a punishing workout plan. It starts with a small decision that reduces friction and increases consistency.
A person goes to bed thirty minutes earlier. They wake up less tired. They make a reasonable breakfast with protein. They feel more stable energy throughout the day. Training feels more doable. They show up. After training, they naturally make slightly better food choices, not because they are forcing discipline, but because the workout creates a sense of investment. They drink more water. They feel less bloated. They sleep better again. Their mood improves. Their stress tolerance increases. Their cravings decrease. Their consistency becomes easier.
At that point, the transformation becomes less about motivation and more about identity. They are no longer trying to become someone who trains. They are becoming someone who trains. Remember, people like us do things like this. The dominos are doing what dominos do: making the next step easier.
This is where people get confused. They think progress requires more intensity (aw your getting bored with being consistent, that’s cute). What it usually requires is better sequencing. It requires choosing the smallest lever that creates the biggest chain reaction.
The Real “One Thing” in Fitness
If you strip away the noise, the “one thing” that drives most fitness outcomes is not the perfect program. It is not the perfect macro breakdown — there’s a million different ways to get there from a nutritional perspective. It is not the perfect supplement stack. It is not even the perfect training split.
The one thing is consistency.
Not perfection. Not extremism. Not obsession. Consistency.
Because consistency is the engine that makes everything else possible. Fat loss is downstream of consistent training and reasonable nutrition. Strength is downstream of repeated exposure to progressive loading. Athleticism is downstream of repeated exposure to skillful movement and force production. Confidence is downstream of keeping promises to yourself. Every desirable outcome is downstream of showing up often enough that your body adapts and your identity shifts.
This is why the “all in” approach fails so often. People confuse intensity with consistency. They believe that doing a lot for a short time is superior to doing a manageable amount for a long time. It is not. Fitness is not a sprint. It is not even a marathon. It is a lifestyle of small decisions repeated until they compound.
Three Real-World Domino Scenarios
To make this practical, consider three common archetypes I see constantly.
The first is the person who says, “I don’t have time.” Usually, they are telling the truth. They are busy. The problem is not time, it is plan design. They choose a plan that requires an unrealistic time commitment, miss a session, and then mentally abandon the entire project. The solution is not guilt. The solution is a smaller first domino: two sessions per week, scheduled like appointments. Once this becomes your new normal, adding a third session becomes possible. But the third session cannot be sustained until the second session is owned.
The second archetype is the person who is aggressively motivated at the start. New shoes, new supplements, new meal plan, new playlist, new identity. They go from zero to one hundred overnight. This works until life interrupts, which it always does. Then the person interprets interruption as failure. The solution is building a system that survives imperfect weeks. There has to be a system for when life interupts you. For example, when I schedule a deep work block (a time dedicated to interruption free work) I have a plan for when I get: a phone call, in person interruption, etc. A plan is only real if it works during your worst week, not your best one.
The third archetype is the person who has failed repeatedly and now carries emotional fatigue. They do not trust themselves. The idea of training feels like pressure, and pressure creates avoidance. The solution here is not more intensity, it is rebuilding trust through small wins. Two sessions per week for four weeks, with a coach who removes complexity and reinforces progress. The first domino must be small enough to feel achievable, because the true goal in the early stage is not physical change, it is identity repair.
Why This Matters More Than Another Workout Plan
Most people do not need more information. We live in a time where there’s more information than ever. If anything, we have filter failure. They need a structure that fits their life. They need a system that reduces decision fatigue. They need coaching that anticipates the real barriers: stress, inconsistency, and the mental weight of “I’ve tried before.”
That is why good coaching matters. Not because people are incapable, but because life is chaotic, and chaos punishes vague intentions. A coach provides clarity, accountability, and intelligent progression. More importantly, a coach helps you set up the first domino so that the chain reaction works in your favor.
The First Domino You Should Set Up This Week
If you want to apply this concept immediately, pick one domino that makes everything else easier. Not five. Not ten. One.
It might be scheduling two workouts on your calendar like non-negotiable meetings. It might be eating protein at breakfast so your hunger and cravings are easier to manage later. It might be going to bed earlier so your energy and decision-making improve. It might be packing your gym clothes the night before to reduce friction.
These actions are not impressive. They are effective. And effectiveness beats impressiveness every time.
Final Thought: You Don’t Need a New You, You Need a Better Sequence
The most dangerous belief in fitness is that you need to become a different person to succeed. You do not. You need to set up your dominos in a way that makes success more likely than failure.
Stop trying to knock down the final domino first. Start with the smallest one that you can reliably hit. Let it create momentum. Let momentum create identity. Let identity create outcomes.
Because in fitness, as in life, the people who win are rarely the ones who try the hardest for a week.
They are the ones who stay in the game long enough for the dominos to fall.
If you’re ready to rock n roll, click the link here to get started!