WOW #018: Is The 1% Improvement Rule Right for You in 2024?

Quote of the Week:
"If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time you're done. It is only when looking back 2, 5, or 10 years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones become strikingly apparent.”
- James Clear

Getting “1% better” each day is a bit of a fuzzy metric. 

However, what I like about James Clear’s challenge is that because we know ourselves better than anyone else, we can answer with confidence whether we’re trending up, treading water, or regressing backwards: 

We know ourselves.

We know our habits.

We know good ones (and bad ones).

We know what happened yesterday, the day before, and how to set the baseline for today.

Phone apps, wearables, and online tools have made it easier than ever for us to record, test, edit, and evaluate our “performance” from one day to the next.

Think of the “1% improvement” as a proxy for whether we as business owners have committed ourselves to a philosophy of continuous improvement.

Continuous Improvement: Kaizen - Kai (Good), Zen (Change)
While the exact origins of continuous improvement is really anybody’s guess - one of the most known examples (Kaizen), is credited to post-WWII Japan. Toyota popularized Kaizen by focusing on day-to-day operations and manufacturing. The philosophy is known to involve and improve everyone at individual levels, regardless of their position.

Little tweaks.

Small step improvements.

Iterative change vs. big moves

Small Businesses and One-Person Business owners wear multiple hats out of necessity. As the sun starts to set in 2023, how might you think about improving yourself (and by extension, your business) by 1% every single day throughout 2024?

2 Takeaways:

1. What's Actively Measured Gets Managed. As mentioned, it’s easier than ever to measure and manage our lives. This is something you can either embrace or reject. Lean into whatever encourages you to embrace it. Gamified platforms, personal rewards, accountability partners, friendly competition, etc.  

2. Backward Measurement Reveals A Lot Too. Back to Clear’s quote above - how would you analyze how everyday habits impacted your life and business 2, 5, or 10 years ago? How have these micro-ascensions (or regressions) spurred or stunted growth as you look back on them today? Example: Would running a 5K tomorrow morning be much easier now vs. 1 year ago, 2 years ago?

1 Action:

Start with the sampler before the entree. Consider these 3 disciplines in your business: Marketing, Sales, and Fulfillment. (Think small sips, not giant gulps). Choose one that is top of  mind, and assign 5 easy-to-track tasks that contribute to the larger goal. For Sales, it might be:

# of calls made
# of appointments scheduled
# of appointments fulfilled
# of marketing emails sent
# of responses or replies given

The sum of barely recognizable, unnoticeable tasks that occur everyday amount to a lot over time. 

See you next week, 

Hubert