The Sprinkle Effect Method: Small Shifts, Big Change.

Feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or scattered? In this episode, I’m sharing my simple Sprinkle Effect Method to help you shift your mindset in real time.

You don’t need to change your whole life overnight—you just need awareness, intention, and one small action.

✨ See it. Sprinkle it. Shift it.

Let me know which sprinkle you need most right now 💛

Transcript

Welcome And The Core Method

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Maybe I Can podcast. I'm your host, Debbie Weiss, and thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so happy that you're here with me. Today we are going to talk about the sprinkle effect method. See it, sprinkle it, shift it. The whole point is that you don't need to change your whole life in order to move forward. You need to notice what's happening, name what you need, and then make one small shift in the moment that you're in. The discovery of this, I think for me, happened with a business experience. I was sitting at my computer, multiple tabs open, actually, as I'm looking, and they still are open, so I think I've got to rethink that. And I was just jumping from one thing to another, not finishing anything, feeling scattered, and thinking to myself, why am I even doing this? Probably nobody's gonna buy this thing or whatever it was that I was creating, or is anyone even hearing this podcast or this reel that I'm recording? And this person is doing it better than me. This is such a waste of time. What was I thinking? And in that moment, I realized I didn't need more strategy because I was always looking for oh, this is the next best thing, and this is going to make all the difference. No, what I really needed was a shift, honestly, in my own mind and how I was thinking about almost everything in my life. And this is where the sprinkle effect method basically was born. Initially, I wrote my memoir on Second Thought Maybe I Can. And when I was writing it, I had to make a conscious decision of did I want this to be a quote-unquote self-help book? Because the idea was to help people with my story. And eventually I decided, no, it's going to be a memoir because I want people to be inspired by my story. And people were inspired by my story, but then they said, Yeah, but I need the nitty-gritty. I need to know what did you do? How can I apply this to my life? And that's when I wrote the sprinkle effect, which was just adding in different sprinkles into your life can really start to change everything. But to even put it more succinctly, it's not just about sprinkling things in, because first you have to be able to be aware and know what you need. So the see it part of the sprinkle effect method is awareness. It is sprinkling in what you need, and then shifting it is taking that one small action, whatever that is, and shifting that one moment. It's not about fixing everything because nothing fixes everything. As a matter of fact, I just got off a podcast interview and I talked about the fact that we all want immediate gratification, right? We all want it yesterday. Whatever it is that goal is. And if it's something that seems impossible or will take too long, I think so many of us say, forget it. It's impossible. That'll never happen. Oh my goodness, that might have happened for five years. We want it yesterday. But what I've learned is applying this method in that moment. What do I need right now? And when you start to make those small shifts, one by one, things start to change. It doesn't happen overnight. You think, what is this little thing gonna do? But if you keep at it, if you're consistent with it, you apply this method and it will begin to change your life. So thinking to my business example, where I had all these thoughts going through my head, first step, applying the method is see it. Okay, I see what's happening. I'm feeling scattered, I'm overwhelmed, I'm comparing myself to others. I'm doubting if this even matters. I'm becoming aware of these thoughts. I'm not judging them. That's a big thing. I'm not judging the fact that I feel this way. I'm just noticing it. I'm recognizing it. So instead of trying to just push through and push it out of my mind, no, I just have to name it so I know what it is I'm dealing with. Because once I know what I'm dealing with, then I can move on to the next step, which is sprinkling it, deciding, okay, what do I actually need right now? Maybe my answer is a change of perspective or belief or focus or direction, whatever it is that you need. And then how do I take that little sprinkle and make it real, make it specific, and take one small action to start to shift everything? So, in this example, I could close all the tabs except for one task. I could stop scrolling on social media and looking at all these other people who I think are doing it better than I am. I can remind myself that I don't need the whole entire world to hear or read or buy anything that I have offer, whatnot. I remember saying when I was in a group and we were all writing our books for the first time, and we had a conversation. What is your goal with this book? And every one of us said, if just one person reads this book and sees themselves and gets something from it to help them, that's it. That's all I'm looking for. And I need to remind myself, that's it. That's shifting that thought. I'm shifting it to remind myself, nope, I don't need everyone to see by listen. I need just one person. And I can also shift it by choosing just one priority instead of all of these competing tasks or priorities that I had in my mind. One thing. The shift isn't fixing my entire business, it's calming the moment that I was in. Let's go a little deeper with this method. So, see it. Most people skip this, right? I think most people skip it because maybe you don't want to own up. You don't want to own up to some thoughts that you're having or something that you are doing or have done. Because we so often judge ourselves. I can only speak for myself. I know that I have been very hard on myself for a majority of my life. Why do I think I have to be perfect? Why do I think I have to do everything in some timeline? I have no idea. So I don't want to see it, right? Most of the time I didn't want to see it because if I saw it, what would I do? I'd belittle myself. I'd tell myself how terrible person I am. And so we don't want to see it. We react instead of noticing really what's going on in that moment. We might snap at someone or just shut down completely, shut that whole computer and say, forget it, this is not worth it, and start making excuses, or our thoughts can be spiraling. But here's the thing: you can't make a shift in anything until you see it. You have to know what it is that's actually happening. You can't judge. You just have to become aware. It's hard. You have to catch yourself. You have to remind yourself when you're thinking these thoughts. Oh, you idiot, what did you do this for? I can't believe you. You're so dumb, you're never gonna be successful, this is never gonna happen. Would you talk to your friend like that? If they were spiraling, I don't think so. So why are you talking to yourself like this? Do not judge, just notice. Because then once you see what's going on, it's easier to decide, what do I need in this moment? That's where the sprinkle comes in. What can I sprinkle into my life that's going to help to shift this? It's a turning point. Instead of thinking, what's wrong with me? You think to yourself, what do I need? This morning, I was writing in my morning sprinkle journal, as I do every day. And I'll tell you, I do find it very useful. If you're listening, obviously, you're not seeing it. But every day, the journal asks you to decide what sprinkle you need today. And I'm gonna share with you, I said today, I need a sprinkle of discipline because I knew that I had a very busy morning into early afternoon, and then I had a podcast interview where I was a guest on another show, and that took me about three o'clock this afternoon. I gotta tell you, I'm a morning person. Usually by this time, because now it's about 3:30, I'm done. And so this morning I said, no, I really have no choice but to record this episode today. So it could require a little discipline because I know me, and after I was done being a guest, I'm kind of done talking, thinking all the things. So I knew I'd need discipline. You write what you're grateful for. And my intention for today was to make progress and do the things that are important to me today. And a challenge I might face today and how I will approach it, it is I could lose motivation, but then I have to remind myself I don't need motivation to take action. And then one thing I'll do to bring joy into my life, which was actually relaxing on the couch later and knitting. And then in this journal, it says there is a sprinkle reflection question. So each sprinkle of the day that you choose out of the, I think 17 sprinkles has a question that you then journal on. And for discipline, it's what's one small habit I can stick to today, even when it's hard. And recording this podcast is something that was going to be hard for me, not to actually do this recording and talk to you because there's honestly nothing I love more. It's just this is not my ideal time of day. But that's okay. So I sprinkled in my discipline, right? That was the sprinkle that I needed for myself today. And then I apply the last thing, the shift it, a small, doable action, not perfect, not big. The one thing that I committed to today was recording this podcast. Now, there are other things I would like to do today, and I plan on doing some of them when I'm done talking to you. If I don't, that's okay. I committed to doing this, recording this podcast today. That's it. One small doable action. Not perfect, not big, but it still matters. That's the shifted. And this method doesn't just work for business or practical moments. It can actually be applied to emotional ones as well. And I did use this yesterday because yesterday would have been my 32nd wedding anniversary. And if you're new to the show, maybe you don't know, my husband passed away three and a half years ago. This is actually the fourth anniversary that I've lived through. And I was still having moments. I was thinking to myself when I got up yesterday morning, it's not supposed to be like this. He should still be here. I imagined what it was like, and it was actually years before he passed since we had done this, but the early days, let's say the first 20 years of our marriage, where this was our date night. We would go out to dinner, we would pick somewhere special, maybe somewhere that we really liked that we never got to go, or we'd try somewhere new. And I imagined we should be sitting at dinner together. I remembered in the early days, his smile, his laugh, he was like a God, I'm not feeling emotional just talking about it. He was like a young Santa Claus. He looked like that, he had a jolly belly and he had a beard, and back in the early days it wasn't didn't have any gray in it. And he just had a twinkle in his eye. He really did. And just a jolly laugh. And I had to say, okay, apply the sprinkle effect method to what's happening. I've gotta see it. I'm grieving the life I wish I still had or that we still had. Okay. I'm aware of that. That's okay. Now I'm gonna sprinkle it. What do I need? I think I need to give myself some compassion. I think I need to say, it's okay to wish that he was still here. It's okay to grieve. Grief, it's a journey and it changes and it morphs. And that whole and that grief that I feel from his loss will never go away. But it doesn't mean that it's the driver in my life. But it's okay. And then really, I need to sprinkle it with a little gentleness and I think kindness to myself. The shift is that I can allow myself to feel that way. So often, I don't know about you, but I try and stuff down those emotions because they're painful, right? They're painful. And I feel like, wow, why did it have to be this way? Life is so unfair. I don't want to feel like this, so let me just push it out of my mind. But no, that's not helpful. The shift is actually allowing myself to feel all the feelings, to stop judging myself for feeling this way, and to remind myself that missing him does not mean that it's I'm stuck. It means I loved him and I still love him. Sometimes the shift isn't necessarily feeling better. It's just allowing what's true and giving yourself permission. All right, let me give you some other relatable examples. Here's one. See it. Everything is going wrong. Sprinkle it. I need perspective. And the shift is really look at what is working, right? You have this thought, everything is going wrong. The see it part is the awareness. Maybe you don't even realize that you've got that spinning in your head. I think I've told you this before, but I'm going to tell you this again. My friend Mary had given me this visual many years ago with a box, and she said, picture each of your problems in an individual box. And almost like in my mind, you can see how you see it, but in my mind, I picture all these little boxes, these white boxes in my head, I don't know why, floating around, around my head. And she would always tell me each box has one problem. Just because one box opens, meaning that problem becomes first and foremost, comes to the forefront, does not mean you open all the boxes. Because I would be like, oh, this happened, and then I have to list and this, and what about this? And now I think everything's out of control. No, that one box is open. Okay, this is a situation I have to deal with right now. All the other boxes remain closed. And that is what the shift is. Look at what is working, right? Concentrate on that one box, that problem. So the awareness was I think everything is going wrong. I need perspective, is the sprinkle. Really? Is one thing really going wrong? No, let's shift that and talk about it's only one thing that's going wrong. Or on the flip side, look at what is working. Let's talk about a sprinkle of belief. Maybe you have to see that you're thinking someone else is better than me. They're doing that better. They're better at that than me. The sprinkle is that I need more belief. I need more belief in myself. The shift is that there's room for me too, right? It's not an exclusive club where only one person is allowed to accomplish whatever that is that you're setting out to do. Let's see, I got a lot of examples in my little outline here. I don't want to read them all. Two more. Let's go to my favorite one. One of my favorite sprinkles is responsibility, a sprinkle of responsibility. And it's my favorite because this is really the sprinkle that changed it all for me. Because here is what I eventually became aware of, is that I was thinking, everything happens to me. Why does everything happen to me? I didn't know I was thinking that. Took me decades. But once I did become aware, meaning applying the method, that I saw it, I see it. Everything is happening to me. This is what is going through my mind. I gotta sprinkle this. I need a sprinkle of responsibility. Because is really everything happening to me? No. Nothing is happening to me. As we say, it's happening for me. So, all right, that's nice and it's very woo-woo. Is everything happening to me? No, everything is not happening to me. And here's the deal. Even if things happen, which they will, because this is life, and everything happens, or things happen to everyone, just at different times, different things, different degrees. Okay, so something might have happened, but we need to sprinkle that with responsibility. I need to take responsibility for my actions or my actions moving forward, right? Instead of just assuming, oh, it's happening to me, there's nothing I can do. Well, wait a second. Let me add in here, let me have a sprinkle of responsibility and remind myself, no, I can take responsibility for my life. I've got to shift this by saying, what can I do here? What can I do here to change this situation? All right. Last one, joy. Because who doesn't want joy in their lives? First, I have to become aware of where I am right now. So you might see it and think, I'm feeling just blah and disconnected. The sprinkle is I need joy. So many people though think, joy, really. I don't know how to even be joyful, or it seems like something that is big. You have to do a whole lot. And you think, I don't have time for this. I don't have time for joy, because it seems like that's an event. But really, the shift is all you have to do is one small thing that lifts you. And as I just read from the Morning Sprinkle Journal, that's one of the questions. How can I bring some joy into my life today? Every single day. And I'm telling you, these things that I write in there, they're small. They usually are either seeing a friend, oh, here's one. Sit by the fire after dinner and knit while listening to a book or watching TV. One day I wrote, I will read tonight. One day I was getting a massage. One day I was going to the movie with my cousins. This is back in December. One thing I'll I will do today to bring joy into my life was watch a jet game with Ben. These aren't big things, but they're intentional. And even if I planned on doing them anyway, now I really understand or understood, hey, this is not just something that I do. This is actually bringing joy into my life. Different moments in our lives need different sprinkles. So why does this work? It seems so simple, really, because it is. But what does it do? First of all, I think it interrupts autopilot, right? It makes us stop and become aware of our thoughts and think, what can I do to make a change here? Without that, without applying the method, we know how that goes. Your mind just keeps going and you're just living your life like you're in a coma, just doing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing just to get through the day. Right. It also gives you control in that moment that usually does feel out of control. You're able to see what's happening and then think to yourself, okay, what can I do about it? What can I sprinkle in here that can actually help me begin to shift it? And thinking through this whole process, it reduces that overwhelm. And it also builds trust in yourself. Hey, all right. I was able to take this situation where everything felt out of control. I was able to see what was happening, sprinkle in what I needed, and shift it by taking one small action. You don't need to figure out clarity over everything and a direction and what's this gonna do and all the things that you feel like you need to figure out. You just needed clarity in that moment. So I am challenging you. This week, I want you to try it once. Catch one moment, look for it, where you feel overwhelmed or stuck or frustrated. See it, ask what you need, and make one small shift. So it could be I'm feeling stressed, I need to become calm. Take a breath, take some deep breaths, see it, sprinkle it, shift it. I feel stuck. That's what you sprinkle it knowing, hey, you know what? I need a sprinkle of action here. But then you've got to shift it by taking one small step. You have to start. Just start. And the last example, because I think I do this a lot, I'm comparing myself to others. And I, this is true confessions. I do this more than I care to admit to you or to myself. When I do that, I need a sprinkle of belief. I need a sprinkle of belief in myself. What am I caring about what others are doing? I know that I believe what I'm capable of. And the shift is that I am then able to refocus my thoughts and my attention. This method doesn't remove hard moments, right? No, it doesn't do that. It just changes how you move through them. So whether it's something practical like your work or something deeper like grief, you always have access to a small shift. Remember, you don't have to change your whole life. You just have to apply the sprinkle effect method. See the moment, choose what you need, and sprinkle that in and shift it by taking one small step. All right, I can't wait to hear how you're able to apply this. So please reach out either on Instagram, DM me at Debbie.r.wiss, send me an email, Debbie at Debbie. It makes a big difference, helps spread the word, and hopefully gets more of us on this sprinkle effect method train, right? Okay. Make it a great week. See it, sprinkle it, shift it. Bye bye.