Here’s how to build more self-improvement into your routine so you can get better every day and finally crush those long-term goals.

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Ran into an old friend a few weeks back. In the midst of the usual small talk and eventual catching up, we got into some deeper conversations.

Namely, about how I’ve been focused heavily on my mental health through routine mindfulness practices.

We chatted about how I’ve fully embraced a few things that are now staples of my day:

• Meditation
• Journaling
• Prioritizing sleep through a consistent bedtime (I’m in bed at 9:30pm and up at 5:30am)

As a result, I’ve noticed more about myself and my surroundings than I’ve ever thought possible.

In many ways, I’ve evolved.

And my friend recognized that.

“Geez dude, you’ve changed since when we were doing stupid shit and chasing girls back in our day.”

My original thought was that I haven’t changed that much, I’m just more aware. Perhaps I’m even more awake––not necessarily in the “woke” sense, but rather more present in the moments.

I’m no longer trying to check off random boxes and mindlessly complete To Do Lists. I act with intention and purpose.

The second thought was that “back in our day” makes us sound much older than we are.

And then the third thought that I pondered for quite some time was … Yeah, actually I have changed.

That’s what we’re supposed to do as human beings.

If you are not improving as life goes on, you are wasting away and slowly signaling the mind, body, and soul that you are prepared for your exit.

Take that however you’d like, but it is true.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to get better every day. Making small improvements through your journey in life, social life, health, fitness, business and relationships.

So you, too, can evolve (or change, but I like “evolve” a little better).

Let’s get into it.

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How many books have you read this year?

Hell, let’s make this even easier.

How many articles have you read from start to finish this year?

Hopefully, you’ve been picking up the knowledge bombs that I drop here every single week, but I digress.

We’ve regressed into a society of stagnant individuals that just coast through life after school without ever enriching our minds with real meaning, purpose, or direction.

Mindlessly checking your inbox, how many likes your latest post received and just biding time until the weekend when you can sit back and do nothing but binge crappy food and even crappier TV.

“Geez, dude. Chill a bit.”

Yeah, I’m a bit passionate about this stuff.

Because life is meant to be lived.

It’s meant to be experienced and enjoyed.

And if you are not enjoying it, we’ve got to find a way to fix that.

Unfortunately, too many times you’ve probably told yourself that very phrase.

And your first course of action was to make a total sea change.

• Cut off the TV
• Lace up the shoes and start running
• Embrace nomadic minimalism and be a hermit
• Drop all processed foods
• And a million other random things you read about some dude doing on a blog post that sounded cool.

How did that work out for you?

When you try to recreate your life with one broad brush stroke, you’re going to fail.

It’s simply too much change to be sustainable.

I preach about this in terms of health and fitness quite often.

Look, I know you’d like to lose 10, 20, maybe even 100 pounds. But, going to extremes and trying to rush the process will never work.

Instead, the slow road to victory is usually the fastest path.

The same applies here.

I want you to embrace the slow road to make subtle improvements. Instead of making a total 180-degree turn in one movement, you’ll opt to take this one small degree at a time.

One day at a time.

That’s what we mean by striving to get better every day.

James Clear talks about this in his book, Atomic Habits. If you’ve not read that book, you absolutely should.

It’s the concept of just aiming to get 1-percent better every day. Doesn’t sound like much.

But, when you compound the improvements of 1-percent every single day for an entire year, by the end of that year, you’ll be 37-percent better.

That’s a massive improvement.

From a fat loss perspective, the same applies.

Think less about 12 to 16 week diet plans and more about what you’ll look and feel like one year from now if you just aim to make small adjustments.

How do 1-percent improvements look in practice?

Since weight loss is my wheelhouse, we’ll continue to stay on this approach.

As I’ve pointed out countless times in my content on goal setting or on how to get started losing weight for good, the key to fat loss victory comes from making small improvements.

If you’ve never really dedicated your time and energy to shifting away from the yo-yo dieting cycle of suck, then this is especially important.

Start small.

What is one small thing that you can do a little bit better today?

• Add more protein to one or two of your meals?
• Prepare one more dinner at home, rather than order delivery or takeout?
• Go for one 20-30 minute walk after lunchtime every day?
• Add in one strength training session per week to start developing a resistance training habit?
• Remove one processed snack and replace it with fruit?
• Include one or two servings of vegetables with your next meal?

Pick one of the above. Do that for a week or two. Then add another.

How often have you gone with that “go big or go home” approach, trying to add all of those habits above, only to fall flat on your face and end up proverbially “going home?”

Exactly.

You’re impatient.

Instead, embrace the slow and steady approach by building each habit one week at a time. Go grab Atomic Habits and make that your bible for the next month.

And yes, you should be reading more.

If you are really serious about getting a little better every day, developing a reading practice is imperative. Here’s how to make that work for you.

How to know if you are doing the right things to get better every day?

Great question.

For that, we turn to the often cliched, but totally valid, phrase:

What gets measured gets managed.

In other words, you should start tracking your ability to stay on plan.

For some, that might mean creating a simple food log and writing down everything you eat in a day.

In other cases, you might want to start full on tracking calories.

Or perhaps it’s as simple as a notebook or note app on your smartphone that allows you to check off a few boxes that you are performing the new habit consistently.

This habit-based approach is something that I work on with all of my Lean4Life Academy members through our smartphone app that tracks not only workouts (and strength progressions) but also specific and personalized habits like the examples I provided above.

Your goal is not to perfectly execute these habits and make a total sea change in just a few days.

Instead, your goal is to get consistent at executing these new habits. You might miss a day here or there, but as you really bake these new habits in, you’ll start to notice much better adherence and consistency.

As you develop the consistency, the momentum builds.

Then results are finally noticed after a few days:

• Perhaps it looks like a few pounds down on the scale or a few inches lost on the waist.
• Maybe you have more energy through the day and better quality sleep at night.
• Improvements in strength are signs that your workout programming is working.
• Or maybe it’s just having a little more confidence in yourself, clarity in the day, more creativity at work that is coming into fruition.

All of these (and more) are signs that you are doing the right thing to get better every day.

Keep going and keep building that momentum.

As I’ve talked about many times in the past, momentum will beat motivation. Every. Single. Time.

It works in a cycle.

You take action by committing to small daily habit changes.

That action leads to momentum. It’s part of your routine and you start practicing this stuff consistently.

As you keep up the consistency, it leads to small but noticeable results.

And if you are seeing results with what you are doing, you develop the intrinsic motivation to keep taking more action.

That is how you get better every day.

Let’s keep playing this out with the weight loss example.

As I’ve also mentioned countless times before: Your weight loss journey should begin with simply writing down what you eat every day.

Build awareness around the foods that you are currently eating, what, when, how much you consume at each meal.

You continue this practice of logging your food and begin to notice trends. Maybe you realize that you are snacking a little heavy around 3:00 p.m. every day.

It becomes easier to make small improvements to those undesirable habits. So, you add in a little more protein and more fibrous veggies at lunch. You swap out the chips for an apple and one of your kids’ sticks of cheese.

No more snack cravings at 3:00 p.m.

As a result of this constant practice, the weight drops a few pounds after a couple of weeks.

Now you’re motivated to keep going. To keep getting better.

From here, you can add in some more daily activity in the form of walking. And perhaps prioritizing a little more protein at each meal.

Taking this slower approach doesn’t lead to immediate results. Instead, it creates long-lasting, life-long change.

It’s time to get better every day

Now it’s your turn.

Take a few minutes to really think about where you are and where you’d like to go. It can be five, 10 or even 20 years from now.

What are your goals? How do you develop attainable ones that you can start building towards with small daily improvements?

Write them down. Keep them handy so you can measure progress over time. Check in with yourself at intervals (quarterly, annual, whatever makes sense for you).

And then start doing the work on yourself. One small baby step at a time. That’s how you get better every day.

I’m rooting for you.

Let me help you learn how to get better every day … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Get better every day” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe you’d like more knowledge bombs from me. I’d be honored if you join my mailing list to get regular updates every time I post something pretty dope.