What could you do if you improved 1% a week?

If you were all able to stick to working on improving 1% per week could you imagine how amazing a life you could have?  I’m not talking about 50%, I’m talking about 1%.  If you do the math, it would take roughly 15 months to double your ability, capacity or performance in a given area of your life from where it is today.  It’s not about focusing on the big things. It’s focusing on the small things that you consciously decide on a daily basis that gets the results you want.

Almost every habit that you have, either good or bad, is a result of many small decisions made over and over again.  Hence how it becomes a habit.  And most people will forget this when they are looking to make a change.  People tend to get caught up in believing the only way something is meaningful is if there is some visible and tangible outcome associated with it that others notice right away. Fact of the matter is that’s just not true. Making the small incremental improvements will allow you to lay the foundation for big changes and huge impacts on your life, work, training, and nutrition.

Here is where it gets hard. There is basically no difference between making a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse. That’s a fact. The negative or positive decision that you make doesn’t necessarily affect you today. But as time goes on, the 1% worse choice compounds and now you find yourself in a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily/weekly basis.

It’s a snowball effect – roll it down a snowy hill and it’ll build on itself to get bigger and bigger before you know it. It’s like making a deposit in the bank and it earns interest. The positive 1% changes you make week after week will compound over time, again and again.  And the longer you can keep making those deposits the more and more it will compound over time.  Just remember, that snowball can be filled up with 1% better choices or 1% worse choices, that’s up to you. Everyone loves to look at success as one single event as opposed to a journey of good habits and making the right choices over and over again.  Go out and become that snowball rolling down the hill. Gain your momentum and see what can happen.

So what’s your next step? Start right now, be patient, and prepare for some bumps in the road along the way. Figure out what you’re looking to optimize, whether it’s your daily nutrition, weekly training program, nightly sleeping habits, or productivity at work.  It starts with you, and it starts right now.  Set a goal, figure out a plan of how you’re going to achieve it, plan to fail (so you can get back up), and keep grinding it out until you make it to where you want to go.  Nothing in this life is worth it if it comes easy, so enjoy the small wins and have fun on this journey.

Where are the 1% improvements in your life?