The 1% Rule
If you want to get better at something, you’ve got to practice. We all know the saying. But so often the approach we take with pursuing our goals is believing that big success in any area of life requires us to take big action.
Often we start strong then experience burnout and feel like a failure (sometimes due to that perfectionist mindset we wrote about in the last newsletter). Large goal-setting and dreaming big are great and have their place but do not underestimate the power of small, incremental gains - getting 1% better every day.
The 1% rule is an approach that advocates for improving by just 1% daily in any area of your life. Those tiny gains, seemingly trivial at first, will compound over time though, leading to significant progress and results in the long run. Consider for instance, if your goal is to eat healthier and incorporate more greens into your diet.
Improving by 1% might look like adding just one leaf of spinach to your dinner. Maybe the next day you decide to add one more. As time goes on and you’re gaining momentum, maybe you decide to add a few greens to your meal at lunch too and then, when you feel ready, you can slowly reduce the amount of soda by 1 can a week replacing it with a fizzy water, etc.
The small gains continue to add up and before you know it, your whole routine is transformed - after 1 year you now have incorporated eating greens throughout the week and are more hydrated and less sugar in your bloodstream.
On the other hand, if you were to regress and worsen by 1% each day, after a year you would decline to almost zero. Those few days of adding just a bit less greens could eventually lead to every one of your meals lacking in greens after 1 year and a big decline in your health and energy levels. What seems tiny and insignificant by itself each day, adds up and accumulates over time to something substantial.
The beauty of the 1% rule lies in its simplicity - striving for only a 1% improvement each day is a small, manageable task that doesn’t feel daunting and puts the focus on progress rather than perfection. Over time with incorporating the 1% rule, these tiny incremental wins help us to gain more confidence, build momentum, and keep moving forward to where we ultimately want to go.
There is power in small gains and incremental changes. We can create massive change in our lives through the use of small, consistent steps each day and this is why the habits and routines we put in place determine so much of our success or failure. In the next newsletter, we will talk more about the importance of continuous learning and improvement that comes from having a growth mindset.
If you want help in this area with scaling your goals into small manageable steps, letting go of the perfectionistic mindset, practicing more self-compassion and/or developing better time management skills, please reach out to schedule a session with one of our counselors.
We would love to help you reach your goals!
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