Day 50 is important. When I first started my 365 commitment eight years ago, I set out each year to keep a certain number of habits for the whole year. That was the genesis of the 365 commitment. In that first year, day 50 became significant. It was the day I realized I had been approaching habit creation the wrong way my entire life.
I learned that true habit formation comes from finding the smallest increment that I will actually do. If you start with small increments as the foundation, you can build lasting value and meaningful progress over time. That insight has stayed with me.
Right now in my company, we are worried about marketing. We finally have our product to the point where we are ready to launch a production version of our software that is commercially viable. Now we are thinking carefully about how we will market, who we will market to, and how much and how often. We need a consistent and habitual practice of releasing content to the right audience every day. We have plenty of grand schemes and plans, but the same lesson applies here.
The lowest common denominator is what matters. That phrase captures the smallest amount of work that you will actually do every day until it becomes a habit. This is true in personal life and in business. If you can get your team to follow something small every day, the magnitude and volume they produce over time will far exceed what they could do with any single effort.
There is an irrevocable law at work. Improvement comes in small increments. When I was younger, I thought I could take dramatic leaps forward and find shortcuts to succeed. Sometimes a leap occurs, but the allure of shortcuts is a fool’s errand. What I have learned is that gigantic progress comes from small incremental efforts, not from one grand gesture. Incremental progress is transformative. That is how change actually occurs. That is how behavior changes, whether in your own life or in your business.
People who are worried about achieving results may already have their solution within reach. A little bit of progress each day would do more than the constant worry. Small steps build sustainable value. They fit into daily routines and are less likely to lead to burnout. When you make things manageable, stress and anxiety are reduced, and people feel less overwhelmed. Frequent small wins also increase motivation. People feel the impact of their work. That momentum matters.
Small things compound. At first the steps seem inconsequential. Over time they build on each other until the accumulation of progress becomes overwhelming. I have tried many times to accomplish great and transformative things all at once. I have tried to figure it all out in a day. That has never worked. It has never been successful, long term, or consistent.
I have learned to do the smallest thing that I will actually do every day, and then to repeat it for a long and consistent period. That is how life changing habits are built. The same approach is what I need to apply to our marketing. We can imagine grand sweeping ideas for what to achieve. In reality, the question is simpler. What can we do consistently, a small amount, every day? If we do that, we will build something we can sustain. Then we can take advantage of the compounding effect that follows steady daily action.
By small things will great things happen. That remains the lesson of day 50, and it still holds true.
