#002: Only 1%

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

So… I had it rough last week. In all honesty, it all started with writing my first newsletter. It completely consumed my focus Saturday through Monday until I finally hit send. It was my first one and it had to be FLAWLESS.

Regrettably, I had fallen into that perfectionist pit I was specifically writing against! O the hypocrisy! What followed was a scattered week of catching up with work and home tasks. Rest assured, I survived, and lived to write another newsletter.

So I’ll share the other piece to my recent mindset shift that has helped my perfectionist tendencies: only 1%.

Atomic Habits, by James Clear, introduced me to the story of Great Britain’s professional cycling team. Essentially, British Cycling was one of the worst teams in the sport until Dave Brailsford took the lead as the new performance director in 2003. He adopted a philosophy of accumulating tiny improvements over time in every aspect of the sport, and even those things most overlook, like good hygiene and quality sleep. This led to an explosion of victories in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and world record breaking wins in the years that followed.

And all that championship chatter is exciting, but the key to this is much less interesting: the philosophy of marginal gains.

This is the core concept of Atomic Habits. If we can manage to get better at seemingly small things in small increments over time, we benefit from the compound effect of these changes. In one year, we can get 37 times better with 1% improvement every day. The opposite is true if we “let ourselves go” to a small decline over time.

It’s 1%. One. Per. Cent. That’s all it takes to begin the upward trajectory.

So here are a few 1% ideas I brainstormed to begin implementing in my life. Perhaps they will inspire some personal 1% gains in yours.

• Instead of waiting for my busy schedule to open up enough to workout for a solid 2 hours and feel as pumped as Captain America, I could start with a 20 minute walk outside or YouTube workout. There are hundreds and hundreds, but here’s one I’ve used: 20 Minute HIIT Workout (No Equipment)

• Instead of rewarding myself with an endless Netflix binge at the end of an exhausting day, I could listen to a podcast on a topic that interests me while I prep for the next morning. Here’s one of my favorites right now for any Boy Meets World fans.

• Instead of tapping that Instagram icon on my phone to go down a path of mind-numbing dopamine hits, I could open my notes app and journal for a few minutes. This is a big one since I’m trying to write more often. :)

• Another social media substitute idea for mornings is spending five minutes to write five things for which I am grateful. Or five minutes of prayer time, speaking affirmations, meditation, whatever works for you!

How often do we simply skip or overlook the small changes because their impact seems pointless or too far-off? How often are the changes we attempt to make too unrealistic to maintain? For me, it was the constant struggle until I began to adopt this new perspective.

This philosophy of marginal gains was a game changer. It was the first step in recovery from analysis paralysis, overthinking, imposter syndrome, etc. To all my perfectionist friends, if we shift our mental energy from the monumental goals and arbitrary qualifications, and put it toward the small habits, real lasting progress can take place.

And it’s this philosophy that triggered this newsletter: The 1% Dad. I’m just a dude trying to improve himself all while getting better at expressing thoughts, ideas, and emotions through writing. By no means am I even close to where I’d like to be, but I’m determined to go toward it one step at a time.

We must let go of the need to conquer Mount Everest in a day. Our efforts toward that are feeble. But our efforts toward 1% daily gains are powerful.

I hope this helps your outlook and motivation to keep going! You got this.

Have a “1% gains” kind of week!

-Omar X x O o x o

🎧 Podcast Episode Of The Week

🎤 Dad’s Got Jokes.