The One Percent Rule

Do you get excited about a new goal or endeavor and dive in strong, all in? Maybe your expectations are set way too high and then your end up burning out or failing miserably? I sure have! Too many times to count. What if instead we zoomed way out, looked at the long game, and applied the one percent rule?

Slow and Steady

What if, with every endeavor, we didn’t aim to be the very best right away, but instead aimed to improve by one percent each day? A tiny daily improvement that, over time, will end up creating major success?

The One Percent Rule

James Altucher explains it best. It works like this:

“If you have $1 in a savings account and the account pays 1 percent interest per day, then in 365 days you will have $37.78.

In other words, your “investment” of $1, compounding at 1 percent per day, would make you almost 3,800 percent within a year.

I sometimes say this to people and they say, “Why wouldn’t it be 365 percent?” That would give me just $3.65 at the end of the year.

A big difference from $37.78.

But compounding is like magic.

In one day, your $1 becomes $1.01 (1 percent more than $1).

But on the second day, it’s not $1.02, it’s $1.0201 (1 percent more than $1.01). And on day three it’s not $1.03, it’s $1.030301 (1 percent more than $1.0201).

And so on. That’s compounding.

It starts off small, but the end result is enormous.”

– James Altucher, Skip the Line

The One Percent Rule in Action

How does this work with career skills, passions, hobbies, whatever? Many of these skills are subjective, so how much is one percent? How can that be measured? This is up to you to decide. It needs to be just a little bit. A sustainable effort, paced appropriately, yet clearly an improvement or effort.

Each day of the one percent rule adds up. You can also lose one percent each day. Each day skipped also adds up. Don’t do that.

My daily one percent

Writing

I write a new blog post every single day. Not an entire novel, only a post. This is my one percent offering at improving my writing.

Surgery Recovery

Recovery is not linear so this one is tough. Also, only so much of it is in my control, actually, very little. Knowing this, I have to zoom out and keep an eye on things from afar and keep doing my daily part.

Workouts

I’m aiming to massively transform my body. That does not/cannot happen quickly, it takes a long time. My one percent here is doing all of my workouts and following my meal plan every single day. No exceptions.

But here’s the thing – there’s a fine line to stay on in the gym. It matters how hard I work. With the idea of “just one percent” in my head, it could be easy to work out with “just one percent” effort. That won’t work. In this case, I have to work out at 100% effort every day in order to meet my one percent goal. At the same time, not go too far, causing injury or working so hard that I can’t do it again the next day. Fine line. One percent. Subjective.

Posing

Borrowing from my lifetime music career, I’m starting very early with this new skill. I know that it takes a lot of daily practice to master new instruments. In this case, my body is the instrument, and posing is the art. I’m taking the time to learn the skills early and spend time practicing every day, aiming to get one percent better each day. It adds up but it takes time.

How do I know if I hit my one percent?

Today is the last day of my workout week. 6 days on, one day for recovery. So, I’m feeling a bit chewed up, slightly sore, ready for one last push this morning. I also went to a posing class last night where we worked hard. Holy wake up different muscles, this is not easy! I feel like I need to get squished through one of those old washing machine wringer things.

Come Sunday, when I start the new workout week, if I’m recovered and ready to hit it hard again, then I did it right. 

How will you know?

At the end of each day, ask yourself if you feel that you improved by at least one percent. Did you do a daily effort?

It may seem trivial: 1 percent up or 1 percent down. But your decisions about how you spend each day sneak up until they come to define you.

Every day matters.

End of math class.

– James Altucher, Skip the Line

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Another take on the one percent rule:

This one comes from James Clear.

The 1 Percent Rule

Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal distributions when repeated over time. This is yet another reason why habits are so important. The people and organizations that can do the right things, more consistently are more likely to maintain a slight edge and accumulate disproportionate rewards over time.

You only need to be slightly better than your competition, but if you are able to maintain a slight edge today and tomorrow and the day after that, then you can repeat the process of winning by just a little bit over and over again. And thanks to Winner-Take-All Effects, each win delivers outsized rewards.

We can call this The 1 Percent Rule. The 1 Percent Rule states that over time the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives. You don’t need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.

The 1 Percent Rule is not merely a reference to the fact that small differences accumulate into significant advantages, but also to the idea that those who are 1 percent better rule their respective fields and industries. Thus, the process of accumulative advantage is the hidden engine that drives the 80/20 Rule.

– James Clear

In a nutshell – those who maintain small advantages, whether due to luck or hard work, gradually accumulate the bulk of the rewards.

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