This Simple Math Formula Changed My Life

The 0.99 vs 1.01 rule and what you can achieve with small daily improvements

A few months ago I stumbled upon a personal development article on an Italian blog that talked about a mathematical formula for success — or failure. I found it inspiring and motivating, and it literally changed the direction of my life.

So I thought it would be a nice idea to share it here on Vocal.

The formula is very simple, yet powerful. It’s also called 0.99 vs 1.01 rule.

Here’s a simple explanation:

[1,01 * 365 = 37,78] while [0,99 * 365 = 0,03]

Imagine that in a certain area of your life your current situation equals 1.

If starting from today, you try to improve by only 1% daily in your field, after 365 days the outcome would be huge.

In other words, in one year you would be almost 38 times better than today in what you do. That’s an exponential improvement. And the formula can be applied to any area of your life, to your job or your hobbies for example. Or to something you are learning.

Following the same logic, if you put 1% less effort in a certain area of your life every day, in one year you get from 1 to almost 0. Your performance would decrease instead of exponentially improve.

Shocking, I know. “But how can you put a math formula into practice?” you might ask. The trick is to focus on your habits and small daily improvements. Here are a few rules:

1. Focus on your daily results.

Remember that small daily habits are what will take you to exponential improvement, because it’s what you do every single day that makes the difference and eventually gives you the results you want.

We are what we consistently do.

Focusing on my daily and small achievements is what always helped me deal with and overcome major setbacks and difficult moments, when my first instinct was to give up.

2. Be positive.

Having a positive outlook on life and believing that you will eventually succeed is key to any achievement. When you know for sure that you will succeed because you believe in your potential and in what you are doing, you will get where you want. And you will get what you want.

One day you started, and you believed it would work. There must be a reason for that. Don’t let negative people discourage you. Not everyone will share your vision and your motivation, and it’s completely normal. Just trust your instinct and believe in your vision. Think about why you started.

3. Introduce a good habit every week.

Building good and healthy habits is essential to achieve that exponential improvement we were talking about. If every week you introduce a good habit that is useful and relevant to your goals, you will eventually see a massive and exponential improvement.

When I started writing I was not an expert. My first articles were very simple and most likely not so engaging. But I kept writing at least two articles per week, I kept reading a lot every day, and I went to school.

I kept doing these things for years and I’m still learning. A lot. But now I am a writer, and I love what I do. If I am here and I became better is because of my habits and discipline.

Again: we are what we consistently do.

4. Break bad habits

Did you know that the best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good one?

If you find a substitute for your bad habit and manage to be consistent, you can get rid of an unhealthy habit in around 3 weeks. Yes, 21 days is the time they say it takes for our brain to get used to new habits or to live without a certain habit.

Also, remember that the substitute you choose to replace your bad habit must be healthy and that you can use more than one habit to replace a bad one.

For example, when I quit smoking two years ago, I replaced each cigarette with something different. Sometimes it was eating something healthy, sometimes taking a long walk, sometimes reading a book and other times it was drinking a warm herbal infusion.

5. Whatever it is, do it today.

Don’t procrastinate. If there is something you can do today, just do it. That’s your daily 1% improvement. Do something more than yesterday. It’s all about making an effort.

If you live with this mindset every day, after one year you will reach that 37,78 of the formula, or maybe a higher result.

6. Never expect overnight success: every achievement takes hard work.

And don’t believe in overnight success, it doesn’t exist. When you see someone succeeding all of a sudden in one or more areas of their life, always remember that there is a lot of hard work behind their accomplishments.

It takes years to master a skill and reach our biggest goals.

Again: we are what we consistently do.

And you? How do you think you can improve every day? Is there any good habit you recommend?

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