There is an often quoted story of a frog and a bucket of water. It illustrates the law of deterioration. 
If you take an intelligent, happy frog and drop him into a bucket of boiling water, what will the frog do? Jump out ! Instantly, the frog decides: "This is no fun - I'm gone" 

If you take the same frog, or a relative, and drop him into a bucket of cold water, put the bucket on the stove and gradually heat up the bucket, what then ? The frog's relaxing .... a few minutes later he says to himself: "It seems warm in here." Soon enough you have a cooked frog. 

The moral of the story? Life happens gradually. Like the frog, we can be fooled, and suddenly it's too late. We need to be aware of what is happening. 

Question : If you woke tomorrow twenty kilos heavier, would you be worried ? Sure you would! You'd be calling the hospital: "Emergency ! I'm fat!" But when things happen gradually, a kilo this month, a kilo next month, we tend to let it go. 

When you overspend on your budget by ten dollars in one day, it's no big deal. But if you do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, you end up broke. For people who go broke, put on weight, get divorced,  it usually isn't one big disaster - it's a bit today and a bit  tomorrow - and then one day "kaboom!" - and they say : "What happened?" 

Life is accumulative. One thing ADDS to another - like the drops of water that wear away the rock. The frog principle is telling us to watch the trends. Each day, we ask ourselves: "Where am I heading ? Am i fitter, healthier, happier, more prosperous than I was last year?" If not, we need to change what we're doing. 

Here's the scary thing- there's no standing still. You're either gaining or slipping.