1% Every Day

“You cannot cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

I used to be hardcore about my new year's resolution. I’d have six different categories, my monthly saving plan and yearly expenses, all calculated before the year even started. It was helpful at the time because it gave me a deeper understanding of the values I care about and the goals I want to achieve for the year ahead.

This is the first year I intentionally did not make a new year's resolution. Instead, I want to focus more on my trajectory than my goals. I want to forget my goals and focus on the process and systems.

“1% a day makes you 37 times better in a year.”

When I came across this quote a couple of months ago, it blew my mind. I realized that I had been looking at it all wrong.

True long-term thinking is that there isn’t any single accomplishment. Improvement is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous work. I should be focusing on growing daily.

Improving 1% every day seems insignificant in the moment, but it does make up a life that determines the difference between who we are and who we could be.

How you live your day is how you live your life.” ― Louise Hay

In the past, I defaulted to believing that I could only be in my bliss until I reached my goals. But this year, 2023, has offered me a different lens. The purpose of building habits is to continue living the life we desire, to fall in love with the process rather than focusing only on getting to the result.

We imagine that we must force results, must plow a path to freedom rather than discover the ground beneath our feet. Yet, by taking a step at a time and trusting the moment, you’ll find that an action fully taken leads effortlessly to the next. By fully participating in this moment, the next moment takes care of itself.

“Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.”

Life is a continuum. Layer healthy habits, build small steps every day, and become more aware of the world each day instead of just once at the beginning of every 365 cycle.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t have goals. It is more about implementing a system of continuous small progress. If I don’t like what I’m doing, I have to look at myself, recognize how I created it, and take actions aligned with how I want to live.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re standing, but the direction you’re going.”

Too often, we are left chasing the outcome because we never think about changing the patterns behind it. Instead, we treated the symptom without addressing the cause.

Our commitment to the process will determine our progress.

Too often, we believe that success requires significant action. We overestimate what we can do in a month and underestimate what we can do in a year- the value of small improvements daily throughout the year.

Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions.

As the days begin to pick up toward the second month of 2023, as the quiet 2022 becomes a distant memory, stay grounded. Please don’t get so swept away in the action of it that you lose your connection. Instead, come back to yourself, and ground down into it. After all, that’s the foundation from which we all rise.

“The butterfly counts not months but moments and has enough time. Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

It is not only actions and intentions but also trusting to manifest a life that you love living. It takes courage to trust, especially if you are like me, who has gone through a lot of growing pain. If you stay grounded, it will feel like a greater leap of faith to trust what we are here to experience- the total human potential. All we have to do is stop resisting it and receive the love that’s available for us- right now.

“Your mind will always believe everything you tell it. Feed it faith. Feed it the truth. Feed it with love. Liberation is in the mind. Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”

I trust that I’m here to make a difference and leave a legacy of love. I trust because trust is what opens real, true doors. I seek expansion from the trust. Trust myself, trust inner wisdom—trust divinity.

One day at a time

Once practice at a time

One breath at a time

Heal so you can hear what's said without the filter of your wound.

Each person who works to open their heart touches the heart of all. When we no longer recreate the problem, we reaffirm the solution. The healing we do for ourselves is healing for all.

Remember, magic happens in the mundane.

May you feel the life-changing magic of getting 1% better every day.

You are in my thoughts,

Patti