I'm getting antsy
We just got back from a trip. It was amazing. And I'm getting ready to go back into the office, I'm struggling.
It was a beautiful trip!
As I prepare to return to the office after two weeks away, I'm just dreading it. I'm having trouble getting motivated to go. When can I stop? Can we quit yet?
I keep looking at the numbers in our Personal Capital account, and they're just not moving.
Come on Damn it!! Keep moving up!!!
You can just call me Veruca Salt. Who is that? You remember the snotty little brat from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? The one who had the dad who spoiled her rotten and bought her everything she wished?
I want it, and I want it NOW!!
There's so many other things that I want to do with my time and my life. Most of which don't include dragging myself into an office for a majority of my waking hours.
Why does it seem like we're not making progress??? Why can't I just speed this up?
Enter 1%
1% isn't much. I mean, think about it, if I have $1 and I increase my holdings by 1%, I now have $1.01. Congrats, I got another penny, WOOHOO!
1% is hardly noticeable while you're in the throws of struggling to get to your number. You struggle and struggle to make improvements. You'll wait and wait, but you only see small gains.
People are weird in a way, especially us FIRE people. We like to track things. We like to see progress.
I'm sure you can sympathize, watching your Personal Capital net worth trickle up. Today, I have $100k. I add 1% and now I have $101K, add another 1% and now I have $102K.
Wow, I'm not getting anywhere! This is taking forever!! Hurry up!!
How powerful is 1%?
1% sure feels like nothing while you're working toward some big goal. It also feels like nothing when you compare yourself to yesterday. But, what if I told you 1% is extremely powerful? What if all you had to do was improve what ever you are working on by 1%? Does that seem to super daunting?
If you could save $100, and do you think you could find another $1?
Maybe you could. But what if you increased by that same 1% for each day for an entire year. Where would you end up?
If you can improve just 1% per day for a year, would you end the year 2x better? 4x better than you started?
Improving 1% per day for a year
That's right, you end up 37x better than you started!!!
Wait, what? Just by improving 1 measly percent?
Now, what if I'm lazy, and I'm not improving, but I'm getting worse? 1% can't hurt me that bad. I mean I could lift 100lbs yesterday, and today I can only lift 99 lbs. That's almost 100, I'm close.
So after a year, I'll be at maybe 50% of where I started?
1% decrease per day for a year
Nope... If you decrease by 1% every day for a year, you end up around 3% of where you started!! That's right, you lose 97% of any skill.
Wow!! That's crazy!!!
What's the rub?
So, that's great. Just adding 1% can get you great things. You can make amazing progress on anything your heart desires by simply making small incremental improvements.
If that's the case, why isn't everyone doing it?
This comes down to one thing. Impatience. In today's society, we've become horrendously impatient. We want to see huge progress, and we want to see it now.
No one wants to wait to see the apple tree grow from a seed, we simply go down to Home Depot and buy one that is already full grown, probably already making fruit.
Everyone thinks the same thing during this journey, no matter how far along you are.
"This sucks, I've been working so hard and I'm not getting anywhere."
And this is where it gets tough, the patience, the perseverance, the grit. You have to trust the process. You have to let the universe work itself out.
You have to tune out the quick fix. I hate to burst your bubble.
There is no quick fix! You have to put in the time, you have to struggle through the process.
This is the same for everything you do, despite what every infomercial and ad will tell you.
How can you combat this?
Keep track of what you have accomplished, and then keep it in perspective. Avoid comparing yourself to anyone other than you.
I try to keep things in perspective. I looked at our Personal Capital account for this month. It's frustrating to look at!!
Damn it's Going Down?!?
But then, I change the time frame on the charts from this month to this year. It calms me a little, seeing that we're getting closer.
Wow, We're making progress.
Then, I change the time frame from this year, to the entire history of our accounts.
Look at that... It's going in the right direction.
Wow, we've made a TON of progress! We're way closer than we were, and we're getting closer by the day.
I can start to see the end of the tunnel, I'm seeing the light. It's working... I can push through to the end.
Changing my perspective and looking at things from a broader perspective lets me see the bigger picture. We are making progress, we're making tons of progress. Is it as fast as I would like at the moment? Maybe not, but even though I may not see the changes every day I can truly appreciate the power of 1%.
***As you can tell by the charts, I'm also pushing to learn Pandas and Numpy in Python. I'm making progress... a little at a time. But looking back at where I started? I'm a lot further than I was. Just gotta keep telling myself... Enjoy the process, You're making progress!***
đź’¬ 22 comments
It seems like the middle of any journey is the hardest. The beginning has the excitement of something new, plus tangible progress. The end has the rush of closing in on the finish line. But the middle is just a slog. This 1% philosophy is a great way to stay positive during that slog. Happy slogging!
Once we got on the saving track and turned things around from spend to saving it was great watching the accounts rise, and then at some point, us putting $$ in had less impact than just regualr growth. Also a good threshold to cross but man does it take away the feeling like saving is doing anything. At that point I just quit checking our accounts. It didn't have any effect for me and well, it was all automated so, yeah, just one less thing to think about,
There is something crazy about the point where you can lose all the money you put in the market in one day. Like, you invest your entire paycheck, and that day... POOF gone.
I'll have to agree with you, one less thing you worry about! Sounds like Forrest Gump, "And then I didn't have to worry about money anymore, and that's good. Cause that's one less thing."
And when I'm doing that, I can't help but see the other stuff. Again, we're making progress, especially when you zoom out and look at it from that level.
Long term is good. But, checking it is sooo addicting.
Continuing on the same topic. It works for relationships as well. Keep getting 1% better, and it will blossom over time. Get 1% worse and it will sour and become rotten. Always have to keep the perspective.
That being said. Progress is a great thing, so as long as you are tracking it, you'll start to see the change. That I think it really important as you can see that you have changed a lot over the entire course, not just between today and yesterday.
“Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” -Dwayne Johnson
Cheers!
And before you know it, you'll be making massive steps towards your goal and you will be leaps and bounds ahead of where you were before.
It's so true. I blame smartphones and the internet. We've now been programmed to get dopamine hits instantaneously but, like you said, most things that are worthwhile take time, sustained effort for a long time, and tons of patience.
Love the graph of your PC account! It shows that when you look at a snapshot, doesn't seem like you're making progress, but over time, you're making HUGE strides! Well done!
I think you're on to something blaming smart phones and the internet. The speed of access to information is a blessing and a curse. We can instantly find anything.
There's no more waiting and no more anticipation.