We tend to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the effect of small actions on a daily basis
Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. Meanwhile, improving by 1 percent isnāt particularly notableāsometimes it isnāt even noticeableābut it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Hereās how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, youāll end up thirty-seven times better by one year. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, youāll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more. The effects of small habits compound over time.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent. We often dismiss small changes because they donāt seem to matter very much in the moment. We make a few changes, but the results never seem to come quickly and so we slide back into our previous routines.
References
- Clear, James. (2018). Atomic Habits Chapter 1. The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits (Location 236). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
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Type:š“ Tags: Psychology / Self-improvement Status:āļø