There is a law that decrees, irrevocably, that improvement only comes in small increments. We may fool ourselves into thinking that we can take some gigantic leap ahead in our progress with great effort one day. Still, we will soon discover that we will regress to our condition before the struggle. We always love the allure of the shortcut, and many people have capitalized on this by creating schemes that people will consume. I should author a book and build a bunch of hype around how it will solve all of your problems. When you open the book, it will have but one page with content and the rest blank. The first page will say: “Start with something small that you can accomplish today and add a little bit every day. Record your progress. As a convenience, 365 blank pages have been included for you.”
Incremental progress is transformative. This is how change occurs, how behavior is altered. Many of those constantly worried or stressed about achieving some result or solving a particular problem could have had it solved already. If we had made a little bit of progress each day instead of wringing our hands over it, we would be well on our way to success by now. Discouraged that you did not do that? Never fear. Start right now. Incremental progress builds over time and compounds. Eventually, a small, inconsequential movement will seem incredible to you.
My video on this subject is here
For example, when I first did the 365 Commitment, I wanted to be good at pushups. I hated pushups, so I figured this was a good candidate in the spirit of taking on a struggle. I started with doing 1 pushup on Day 1. The next day, I added another for a total of 2 pushups. This seemed silly. At the gym, outside, or in my living room. I did 1, 2, 3, then 5, then 10. It seemed like such a ridiculously small workload. However, I was doing 365 pushups a year later, which was incredible. I was no longer embarrassed. I could do 50 of them in a row and not even break a sweat. Where I used to meekly do my pushup in the corner of the gym, now I was unabashedly doing sets of 50,50,50,50,50,50,65. That is the power of incremental progress. Too bad I did not keep that habit going! However, it was less exciting to just stay at 365. I was thinking, where is this going? I could see myself at 90 years old spending the entire day doing 15,000 pushups. So I stopped. Darn it.
You can extend this law of incremental progress to just about anything. It is a law, after all. When you do something with little improvements, you will become good at what you are setting out to do every day. You may not be expert level, but you will be competent just after a year of effort. The reason is similar to a ship at sea. When a boat is propelled forward, it gains momentum. It does not immediately slow down when the engines are put into idle. Each little effort pushes the ship closer to its destination. Progress is continual. Even if you have setbacks, discouragement, or troubles along the way, progress is made as long as you continue to point the ship in the direction of the destination. Think of a sedentary life before incremental improvement. A string of nothing days compared to a series of small but incremental improvement days.
You should not look at yourself and think there is no way I can do anything to improve right now. I am too old, too weak, too fat, too overwhelmed, too this or too that. Rather than think like that, do something, even if that something is slight. Something done every day will always be better than nothing all the time. What will occur along the way is that you will adapt. Changing circumstances will not thwart you. Incremental progress is a standard that can weather any storm. As long as you are doing something in the right direction, you will progress.
No matter how daunting the challenge. We can always break it down to the simplest tasks you can perform regularly. Breaking complex ambitions down to the lowest achievable task allows you to get started. Then, as you get better, you can add the next one. This builds a reward system that really helps you to see your progress being made. Never underestimate the power of discovering small rewards along the way. Humans crave that sort of thing. Stop taking shortcuts by getting the satisfaction of watching others succeed and be that successful yourself. Take advantage of the law of incremental improvement and start today.
