The Power of a 1% Commitment

My younger son recently found out he made the travel baseball team for spring. When he got the news, his coach gave him a simple but serious challenge: get outside and throw every day.

And he has. Every single day for the past month.

Has his game completely transformed in a few weeks? No. But has he developed discipline, rigor, and determination in a way he didn't have before? Absolutely.

We've been talking about the idea of 1% improvement, a concept James Clear explores in Atomic Habits: "If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you're done."

If we can make a very small improvement each time we show up, we make progress. Some days it might be less than 1%, and sometimes we may feel it all click. But knowing that just getting out there is building the strength to be our best selves, that's what we're really signing up for.

This feels like the perfect metaphor for this time of year. I keep hearing from people who are sleep-deprived, drowning in year-end to-do lists, with workout plans and healthy habits "on hold” until January.

What if instead, we thought about moving ourselves 1% in the direction we want to go? It may not feel recognizable at first. But then we hit 2026 and realize we're so glad we committed to ourselves.

Here are a few 1% moves that actually work:

• Take a 10-minute walk before your day starts. Movement resets your mind. Fresh air is rejuvenating. 

• Send one genuine message to someone you've been meaning to reach out to. Not networking, reconnecting.

• Close your laptop 30 minutes earlier, twice a week. That boundary is a gift to yourself and everyone around you.

These small commitments remind us AND the people around us what's possible when we honor our own growth, even in tiny increments.

What's your 1% commitment as we head into 2026?