After a 6-day flu, I woke up this morning feeling 10% better than I did yesterday.

Just 10%, but this is all it took to feel happier and more excited about everything!

It reminded me of a great book I read last year called “10% Happier” by Dan Harris. It’s about just going for 10% more happiness instead of trying to live every day ecstatically.

And this goes along well with the idea of mini-habits that we have discussed.

If “getting in shape” is your goal, instead of saying “I’m going to run 20 miles a week and hit the gym at least 3 times”, which is easy to fail at, you lower it to something manageable, such as “I’m going to do 1 push up daily”.

Then you instill the habit that leads to doable long lasting commitment to your goal.

Can you imagine being 10% faster in the water?

Or getting 10% better at whatever aspect of swimming you’re working on.

Imagine what that will take. Just 10% improvement. You can do this! Anyone can.

It could be simply consistency, or bending your elbow on the pull every time, or losing your runners’ kick…just one focus for a few days or weeks can result in a 10% gain!

Think about this as you wrap up your week. In whatever you’re trying to improve, how can you get 10% better?

I think you’ll find that a lot easier than playing the comparison game, or thinking you have to be “faster”.

10% is doable.

10% is going from 2 minutes, 10 seconds in 100 meters to dropping under 2 minutes.

It’s spending 5 more minutes working on a drill to help you improve your technique.

10% is often just showing up!

Befriend the water!