Desire vs. Effort
A reflection on self-directed neuroplasticity
I am currently experiencing a lifestyle of the “1% compounding effort.” The idea is to wake up in the morning and start my day by journaling about what is the next thing I will do to make my life 1% better from where it is now.
Today, I started my day with a simple meditation focused on self-loving thoughts while not giving much attention to other thoughts. Sure, it wasn’t perfect. There were only a few self-loving thoughts during the meditation. Most of the thoughts were normal, day-to-day, and fear-based. But that’s ok. I am just trying to make it 1% better. And yes, I did it!
Then, move to the next one: from the new baseline (where I have already become 1% better), what is the next thing I can do to make it 1% more? I had a work meeting, so I decided to communicate slowly during the call with my client, as one of my professional goals is to become an excellent communicator. Of course, I kept forgetting this goal during the meeting, but once in a while, I remembered and tried. Overall, was it a lot better? Probably not. But was it 1% better? Absolutely.
And that is the point: to get 1% better with every next endeavor.
This practice gradually puts in 1% more effort throughout the day.
