How can you be 1% better today?

“Why Small Habits make a big difference”

I have recently become reacquainted with the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It is a  great read if you are into self-improvement/ motivational style books. If not all good, I am going to be delivering the meat and potatoes of the book for the next few weeks every Monday so stay tuned and be sure to follow me on Instagram for more information about setting habits and getting them to stick.

Ever catch yourself being like wtf why am I not 20 lbs lighter yet?? Rather than appreciating the small daily changes you’ve been diligent about getting after for the past two months. Those small things you do each day may not yield immediate results, but those small daily improvements are what will get you to your goal, so don’t let that shit go unnoticed. 

This is where the 1% idea that James Clear presents in Atomic Habits comes up.

If we can strive to be just 1% better every day, the long-term results have the potential to be amazing. 

1% better for a full year actually calculates out to be 37 times better than when you started, that’s a pretty good stat right there.

 Not sold? Well if you get 1% worse each day, you will decline down to nearly 0!!!!!! Ditch the ALL or NOTHING mentality and try to focus on just being a little bit better each day. Trust the process, this isn’t a marathon it’s a sprint and if we want our habits to stick and our change to be here for good we have to allow ourselves time.

37x better seems pretty kick-ass now right???

Let’s circle back a little and try to understand the importance of this seemingly simple task.

Think back to maybe a shitty situation you found yourself in at one point or another in your life. Now think back to how you got there, it likely wasn’t just an out of the blue thing, multiple daily decisions and actions accumulated and led you to your end result. You may not have noticed at the time, but those decisions you made on a daily basis were ultimately how you ended up wherever it was you ended up. 

Setting small daily good habits will work just the same way. You may not notice the immediate effects of eating one vegetable per day, but reflect back 5 months from now and you may see that, your energy has increased, you have a consistent gym routine now, you pr’ed your back squat, etc. You deciding to eat 1 veggie a day, lead to other small daily changes to your lifestyle that ultimately landed you a PR. 

Oftentimes people get frustrated throughout this process because they can't see the fruits of their labor pay off just yet, it’s not that what you are doing isn't working, it just hasn't broken through yet.  James refers to this as the Plateau of Latent Potential. Progress is never linear, and often what we think should happen and what actually happens are very different.

In an effort to help keep everyone focused and moving forward trying thinking of your goal as not only a goal you would like to achieve, but rather take a look at the systems that need to be in place in order to get there.

A goal is usually only one small moment in time but the systems we have in place that got us there, that’s the good stuff.

Take a weight loss goal for example. If you want to lose weight, what systems will you need to have in place to get there???

Achieving your goal will be great sure, but the systems we put into practice daily, those small habits we work on building that’s the real prize. Those tools will be carried with us forever, whereas the number on the scale is after all just a number.

“True behavior change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.”

Decide who you want to be and prove it to yourself with small daily wins. 

Stay tuned for more steps on setting and building new habits

References:

Clear , James. Atomic Habits: an Easy &Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Penguin Random House LLC , 2018.