chap2.txt

It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and
underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too
often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.
Whether it is losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a
championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to
make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
Meanwhile, improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable—sometimes it
isn’t even noticeable—but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long
run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding.
Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one
year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.
Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline
nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates
into something much more.
Habits are the compound interest of selfimprovement. The same way that
money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply
as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet
the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only
when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good
habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.