Get Better Every Day

The initial title of this article was Get 1% Better Every Day, which has been a philosophy that has become extremely popular over the past decade or so. I understand the philosophy and the numbers absolutely support the idea. If you were to get 1% better every day, compounded, it is 3800% better each year. If you were to get 1% worse each day, compounded, you would lose 97% of your value each year. That is radical to think the compounding growth is so much more substantial than the potential loss. The challenge I had is I could never grasp the 1% idea for me personally. The intent of this article is to provide several different resources and philosophies that you can incorporate into your everyday life. I don’t care which one resonates with you more but rather that you embrace the idea of getting better every day.

It’s a Lifestyle

This would be my personal favorite and what I coach on the most. Often, I get the question “are you a life coach”? I have never known the best way to answer that because yes, we are talking about your life but when it comes to establishing habits and routines, my goal is for it to become a lifestyle. It’s not a fad but rather it’s just what you do every single day. The best resource I know for this is Champion’s Daily Playbook by yours truly. I developed this playbook because I have seen what it can do for someone in 90 days (establish the routine in that time). Any goal or dream that you have can be attained by following the formula inside the book. The key is to continue to use the formula for the rest of your life and keep hitting every goal and dream that you have time and time again. It’s just what you do, it’s a lifestyle.

Kaizen

One of our best family friends has a restaurant called Kaizen. When Taro Arai and the Mikuni family (an amazing sushi restaurant group in Northern California) opened this restaurant in 2011, it was really the first time I embraced the word. Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “continuous improvement”. There is a whole system to follow the Kaizen philosophy. The best resource that I have found on Kaizen philosophy is One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Dr. Robert Maurer. Whether you read the book to really understand the principles of Kaizen or you just like the word and meaning, either way this is an amazing philosophy that I’m grateful to have in my life.

Compound Effect

The term compound is most often associated with compounding interest in the investing world. It refers to the ability of a sum of money to grow exponentially over time by the repeated addition of earnings to the principal invested. If you haven’t shared this idea with your loved ones or yourself, please do as your wallet will certainly thank you. When it comes to improving your life (not just your finances), the best resource is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. The compound effect is the strategy of reaping huge rewards from small, seemingly insignificant actions. Small choices + consistency + time = significant results. It’s an easy read with great stories and examples of what the compound effect can do for you.

My hope is that you check out 1 or all 3 of these books to help guide you to getting better every day. Whether you choose to Kaizen, use the Compound Effect to grow, or make it a Lifestyle, the terminology doesn’t matter but rather that you embrace the idea. Having one or all these terms to refer to is helpful as “life happens”. You will have setbacks such as a flat tire, a loved one will die, or a major break-up. Don’t allow whatever life throws at you to stop your continued growth, take the hit and keep getting better every day. It’s who you are and it’s what you do.