Today, I want to talk to you about a powerful secret. I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it. Some know about it, most do not. It requires minimal effort on your part - in exchange for massive dividends paid back to you. All it requires is consistency on your part. Whether it's each day, week, month, follow this strategy, and you will improve in any skill you choose.

Double your skillset in 72 days

Today, you start a new skill. It doesn't matter what skill, just pick one you want to learn and improve at. Now, each day, try to get 1% better. That's it. I'm not asking for much, just 1% better. Each day, you get 1% better than the last day.

Do you know what happens if you keep this moderate pace? Your skill will double in 72 days. How? The power of compounding. 1% * 1% * 1% compounds until you've doubled a skillset in less than 3 months.

Exercise

Let's say you want to work up to running a mile. Whether you've never ran a mile, or haven't ran in years, let's start slowly. A mile is 5,280 feet. Let's take 1% of that which is 53 feet. On Day 1, put on your running shoes and go jog 53 feet. Not too bad, right?

The next day, try to increase this 1%. Another 5.3 feet makes it 58.3 feet. Do the same on Day 3, Day 4, Day 5. On Day 50, do your 1% again. Now, pat yourself on the back and celebrate, because you just ran a mile.

If you try this experiment, you'll notice something within the first week. 1% per day feels good. It's not overwhelming and it's not intimidating. So how does this work?

The Secret of Kaizen

After World War II, the Japanese took an American concept and expanded on it. They coined the term Kaizen. Translated, Kaizen means continuous improvement. While I use 1% as a marker for this newsletter, the percentage is not fixed. Maybe you want to try 1/2%. Maybe you want to push your productivity and try 2%. Whatever your percentage, the concept stays the same.

Reading Books

One of the core focus for this newsletter is how to get ahead in life. When you read any survey of successful people, you find a few things they have in common. One of them is reading. They are voracious readers - reading about their field of passing as well as self-improvement.

How can we use Kaizen to improve ourselves through reading. Some people read slow. Some people find it hard to get started. Using 1% as your target improvement each day, we start with our Day 1 goal: read 1 page. That's it, pick a book to read to make yourself learn more, and start by reading 1 page.

Now, increase that by 1% each day. Day 2 is 1.1 pages. Day 3 is 1.2 pages. On day 9, you graduate to reading 2 pages in a single day. Easy, right? Well, here is where the magic happens: continue that 1% increase every day. After 32 days, you'd finish a 200 page book.

What about audio books? Let's start with 5 minutes of listening on Day 1. Day 2, we increase 1% to 5.5 minutes. Another 1% on Day 3 gets us to 6.05 minutes. Keeping this pace every day, you complete an 8 hour audio book in 25 days!

If you repeat this process after each book, you can listen to 14 audio books in a year! Imagine the education you'll get on the go.

Momentum is what counts

Picture yourself rolling up a small snowball. Now, push it down a hill. As the snowball rolls down the hill, it picks up more snow. Until it turns into a giant snow ball.

The key here is positive momentum. Even just 1% a day is moving you in the right direction. The best part is, another 1% a day is attainable. It's not intimidating, you can measure it easily, and it helps you move up a level each day.