The Day I Stopped Climbing the Mountain — And Started Taking a Single Step (The 1% Improvement Rule)
The Day I Quit Trying to Climb the Mountain (And Started Making a Single Step).
We’ve all been there.
Being at the base of some huge life mountain and looking up at all that we desire, all that we desire to be better health, more discipline, more knowledge, more success and want all that now.
Years of my life I spent there, that place was overwhelming. My room was filled with unread books like the trophies of shame, a gym card which had more dust than workouts and a dream list so huge it did not make me excited, it just choked me.
I wasn’t lazy. I was in the all or nothing mentality.
In the event that I was unable to work out perfectly, I did not work out at all.
I did not even open the book in case I could not read 50 pages.
I wanted immediate change and this was the same thing that was preventing me to change.
And this was all changed after I learnt one simple thing that is the 1 percent improvement rule.
It did not challenge me to climb to the summit of the mountain.
It simply required a step forward.
What Is the 1% Improvement Rule?
Stated by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, the 1% rule stipulates:
Assuming improvement in one per cent every day, you improve 37 times in a year.
But when you lose 1% a day then you drift to 0.
The change is slow. Invisible. Almost boring.
Day 3? You see nothing.
Day 10? Still nothing.
Day 30? You feel like the same person.
That is where the vast majority give up.
However, the 1 percent rule was never concerned with the initial 30 days but the initial 365.
It is never an event, real transformation.
It’s a process.
A gradual and gentle re-formation of who you are.
Why We Long for Drastic Change (And Why It Fails Us)
We adore success stories that happen overnight, the actor who has suddenly made it, the businessman who has suddenly got rich.
Yet we never look back and see the years of little, steady work.
We desire the 30 days body change.
We desire the “learn a language in a weekend.
We want shortcuts.
But big leaps fail because of one thing: they are based on motivation – and motivation always wears out.
Once you lose motivation, all that is left is your system.
In case your system is too hard, you give up.
When your habits are small you continue.
Small habits are effective because they are too easy to give up.
The Magic of Small Habits: How to Start
The 1 percent rule starts by having a habit so small that you nearly laugh about the decision.
You are not making the habit of it yet.
You are creating the identity of a man who appears.
Let’s break it down.
In case the objective is: I would like to be healthier.
The Big Leap: 5 days in the gym, 90-minute workouts.
The 1 percent Improvement: “Walk to the end of the driveway with my shoes on me.”
Next Level: Take a glass of water in the morning.
Provided that the objective is: I want to read more.
The Leap of Faith: I will read one book a week.
The 1 Percent Improvement: “One page before going to sleep, read a page.”
Next Level:“Being able to put the book on my pillow every morning.”
In case the goal is: I want to meditate.
The Big Leap: 30 minutes a day of meditation.
The 1% Improvement: “Total silence of breathing (60 seconds).”
Do these sound too easy? Good. They should.
You are not attempting to read a book.
You’re becoming a reader.
It is not as though you were a fitness fanatic.
You are turning into a moving person.
You are not attempting to enlighten your self.
You are developing into a meditative person.
The identity is comprised of small steps.
The lifestyle is provided by identity.
The transformation is constructed through lifestyle.
This Is Not a Habit It Is a Growth Mindset
Fixed mindset is: I failed, and I will quit.
A growth mindset will tell me: “I missed a day. But I can be 1% better tomorrow.”
This is nothing more than a self-loving move.
You do not keep punishing yourself because you are not perfect.
Rather, you steer yourself, so to speak, towards progress.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is, however, not an action, but a habit.” – Will Durant
When You Don’t See Change (But It’s Happening)
Every trip has a point that I know as The Great Plateau.
Weeks of effort. No results.
This is where individuals lose hope.
But think of an ice cube.
At 25 ° – no change.
At 26 ° – still nothing.
27 °, 28 °, 29 °, 30 °, 31 ° – still an ice cube.
Then, at 32 °C, the first drop comes up.
Not despite such a final degree—
but because of all the degrees which preceded it.
Your 1 per cent gains are shaping up the heat, the possibility, the unseen momentum.
And one day your life fades away in you in a kind of melting through as it were suddenness — though never sudden.
It was earned, daily, quietly.
The Secret of the Real: Direction > Speed
1% better is not sexy. Not dramatic. Not Instagram-worthy.
Nevertheless, it is the surest way to change.
Stop staring at the mountain. Look at your feet.
What can you do right now?
Can you do 10 push-ups?
Drink a glass of water?
Read one paragraph?
Breathe for 30 seconds?
Write one sentence?
That’s enough.
That’s everything.
Dismissal: Your New Life Starts Here
You do not need a new month, a Monday or a burst of new motivation.
You need one thing: 1%.
The building of a new life does not take place in a single day but it happens day by day.
Small steps.
Small wins.
Small habits.
Such is the climbing of mountains.
Not through arms — but through uniformity.
Your journey starts today.
Take one tiny step.
Your future self is already appreciating you.