A journey of thousands of kilometers begins with a single step

We place too much importance on one crucial moment, but we underestimate the daily work.

Small daily improvements of 1% are not very noticeable, whereas they will make a significant contribution to victory in the long run.

The math is very simple: if you improve every day by only 1%, then by the end of the year you can become 37 times better than yourself. Conversely, if you become 1% worse, you can degrade to zero very soon.

Habit is a derivative of the process of self-improvement. Just as the amount of money in the account is growing as a compound percentage, so small improvements in life have a similar effect, layered on top of each other and giving a much greater effect as they accumulate. Looking back at yourself in a couple of years, only then can you see the effect of good habits and realize their effect.

It is not always obvious to understand, but it works.

If you save some money, you won't become a billionaire in a couple of months, if you go to the gym 2-3 times, you won't get in shape, and after learning English that evening, you won't speak it tomorrow.

We take small actions and immediately wait for the effect, whereas the result of all these actions will be changes in ourselves only in a few months. A small change in daily habits, like changing the route of an airplane by 1 degree of rotation, will lead us to another destination not immediately, but after several thousand steps.

Do not give up the habit without seeing a noticeable result

Achievements are a delayed projection of repeating habits.

Your financial condition is the result of habits in relation to money, your weight is the result of eating habits, knowledge is the result of habits in relation to learning.

I think it's not easy to imagine the final destination, following the projection of today's habits.

It is important to understand the mechanism of habits.

Imagine that there is ice on the table, it is very frosty in the room and the air temperature is about 5 degrees Celsius. Gradually, the temperature in the room rises.

Minus 4.

Minus 3.

Minus 2.

Minus 1. And a piece of ice still remains solid…

Minus 0.5

0 degrees and no visual changes yet…

Then the temperature rose to + 1.

The ice begins to melt…

Changes of half a degree, which outwardly almost imperceptibly led to the fact that solid ice began to turn into water.

Big changes are often the result of multiple small changes that accumulate the potential for a decisive breakthrough.

Cancer cells are undetectable for 80% of their life.

Bamboo in the first 5 years of its life is almost invisible until it creates a powerful root system, and then reaches a height of 22 meters within 6 weeks.

And so in many ways in nature. We do not attach importance to actual internal changes, but attach too much importance only to what has become visible externally.

That's why habits seem invisible until they reach a critical point.

It is important not to get into the “valley of disappointment” before that, when we do not see the effect of habits and begin to think that nothing noticeable is happening. Usually people give up habits for this reason, without waiting for any noticeable result.

But when you break through and cross a certain line in the results, many people around you will notice your success only when it becomes noticeable.

It's like the work of a bricklayer who sharpens a stone monotonously with repeated blows…

All great events start small.

So, small changes of 1%, as if the plants will bear fruit in more than one day. And before that, it is necessary to form a system of habits like how a tree forms the root system, the crown and absorbing from the soil drop by drop, and thanks to the sun, photosynthesis day by day consuming nutrients grows into a strong tree.

Habit, like skill, requires patience.

Good luck and patience!

Source: the book “Atomic Habits", James Clear