“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
I was once asked the question: “If you were to improve yourself by just 1% each day how much better would you be in a year?”
My answer was, “Oh 365 times better of course.” (Duh, that’s how many days there are in a year.)
My friend than explained that because of compounding I would in fact be 3800% better by the end of the year.
Conversely, if you were to become 1% worse each day you would lose 97% of your value each year.
Sometimes focusing on the big goal will overwhelm us into inactivity.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t set goals for yourself. Short and long term goals are vital to keep you on track, but when it comes to something as long term as self improvement, fitness, or savings; the enormity of our goals can become overwhelming. Your goals stare back at you in the darkness, looming over you until you assume the fetal position and decide it would be just as well to continue in your old ways.
Big goals are inspiring, motivating, for a time, until the weight of the huge goal pushes you down into the earth. You know why it’s dragging you down? Why the goal becomes such a fear-envoking thing? Because just like many awe-inspiring things (the Grand-Canyon, Volcanoes…
