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Some days everything just seems to fall into place. You have one win after another, everything goes your way. It’s like driving to work and catching every green light without a hint of yellow or orange in sight.
Your energy is up and you feel as though you have the Midas touch! However, not every day is like that.
It begs the question, how can you ensure the winning days outnumber the average and that Midas touch momentum doesn’t slip through your grasp?
Today’s wins come from yesterday’s hard work
If you think about it, these winning moments don’t just magically happen. They might come when you least expect it, but more often than not they are the result of all the hard work and discipline you have applied in the past.
They are the big payoff for all the small wins represented by that hard work.
It therefore makes sense that no matter what happens in any one day, we can create lots and lots of small quick wins.
Small wins add up
Over time small wins become big wins. They add up and then further compound as you build your career.
In fact, in his international bestseller Atomic Habits, James Clear looks at the effect of those small daily wins or improvements, and how they add up to remarkable results.
Clear notes if you are able to improve by 1 per cent each day for an entire year, and those gains compound, you will end up 37 times better at the end of the year.
Food for thought isn’t it?
Clear calls it continuous improvement and you can see its effects here. Also, if you haven’t yet read Atomic Habits, I strongly suggest you do.
But in the meantime, it’s worth considering where you might achieve the quick 1 per cent improvements and the small wins in your average day.
Where to seek small quick wins
If you think about your daily routine, there are small quick wins that lead to a 1 per cent improvement everywhere.
It’s things like setting your alarm 10 minutes earlier, that one extra call you make, that 10-minute walk you commit to daily, or the two pushups you add to your exercise routine.
On their own, these small quick activities aren’t much, and they also don’t require that much additional effort.
But over time, they compound and really add up.
Clear also notes there are three areas to look for this continued improvement:
- By focusing on what already works and doing more of it.
- By doing fewer things wrong, as in less of what doesn’t work.
- By measuring backwards, where instead of looking at the lofty goals you’ve set for the future, you look at what’s already happened and make decisions based on that. For example, your aim is to network more, but last week you only met five new people. This week, set a goal to meet six. Feels easy doesn’t it?
Small quick wins build momentum
The best thing about small quick wins is they build momentum. You achieve that win, tick it off your to-do list and instantly feel better, which then inspires you to do more of the same.
In the process, they add up to improve your results, and make those big, Midas touch wins all the more common.
Manos Findikakis is the CEO of Agents’Agency.
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