{"id":887,"date":"2009-01-01T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/steady-incremental-improvement-is-a-myth\/"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:18:44","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:18:44","slug":"steady-incremental-improvement-is-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/steady-incremental-improvement-is-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Steady, Incremental Improvement is a Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re want to double your income from $4000 per month to $8000 over a year, what is more likely:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Increasing your monthly income by $350 each month.<\/li>\n
  2. Spending 11 months to go from $4000 per month to $4050, then getting to $8000 in the last month.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019d say that the second, although it seems less likely, actually happens more often.\u00c2\u00a0 Successes are lumpy.\u00c2\u00a0 You can experience huge improvements over a few days, and then relatively little improvements for the next several months.<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately, predicting smooth, incremental success when reality actually offers lumpy success can lead to a lot of frustration.\u00c2\u00a0 I know I\u2019ve spent time burning myself out to reach the next level in my business, fitness or another area seeing no results for months.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, a lucky break can create major change with little effort.<\/p>\n

    For months, this website was stalled at about 4000 readers.\u00c2\u00a0 Then over just a few weeks it bumped up to 6000.\u00c2\u00a0 I went from being able to run 5km to over 17km in just a few runs, after being stuck at the 5km.\u00c2\u00a0 This process can be frustrating, because it\u2019s nicer to get smooth steady feedback showing you\u2019re on the right direction.<\/p>\n

    Success is Lumpy<\/h2>\n

    Expecting success to be lumpy is one of the best ways to avoid frustration.\u00c2\u00a0 If you know that your gains probably are going to come in large chunks, you won\u2019t get stressed when you make little progress after some recent goals.<\/p>\n

    The best analogy I\u2019ve heard from this is of the stonecutter from Harvey Mackay.\u00c2\u00a0 The stonecutter takes a large hammer and slams it against the granite boulder.\u00c2\u00a0 From that strike, he can\u2019t even see a scratch in the surface.\u00c2\u00a0 But he hits the hammer again, and still not a mark.\u00c2\u00a0 Most people would get discouraged, but the stonecutter understands how the stone breaks.\u00c2\u00a0 He can hit it one hundred times without a mark, and on the one hundred and first, it splits in two.\u00c2\u00a0 The lack of feedback from the first strikes doesn\u2019t discourage him, because he knows his persistence will pay off.<\/p>\n

    If you see your pursuits the same way: sudden splits after months without a scratch, it\u2019s easier to work without getting frustrated.<\/p>\n

    Triggering Splits<\/h2>\n

    I\u2019ve found that the lumps of success tend to come when you make a sudden change.\u00c2\u00a0 It could be an external change, like moving to a new city or starting a new project.\u00c2\u00a0 Or it could be an internal change, such as setting new goals or finding a new source of motivation.\u00c2\u00a0 The sudden changes often trigger improvements.<\/p>\n

    Although the sudden changes may trigger a lump of success, they don\u2019t cause it.\u00c2\u00a0 It is all the praiseless work you do beforehand that builds the pressure up.\u00c2\u00a0 The lessons you learn from failures and the skills you calibrate when you aren\u2019t getting the results you want are really what build up the success.\u00c2\u00a0 The triggering event just rewarded you for the investment you already made.<\/p>\n

    Two years ago, my revenues saw a jump after I released my first product to the website.\u00c2\u00a0 Although creating it and publishing it didn\u2019t take significant effort, that success was the result of all the other work I had put before it.\u00c2\u00a0 If I hadn\u2019t spent time building up readership, or I hadn\u2019t built skills from working on failed products, then nothing would have happened.<\/p>\n

    Watch the Investment, Not Just the Trigger<\/h2>\n

    People like to talk about success stories.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of focus is put on the triggering event, the moment that made that person successful.\u00c2\u00a0 The person who loses 100 lbs on a miracle diet.\u00c2\u00a0 The person who starts a blog and turns it into a financial success.\u00c2\u00a0 The people that think of an invention and turn it into a successful start-up.<\/p>\n

    Less attention is paid to the silent investments leading up to that success.\u00c2\u00a0 The years of practice, the failed attempts, the mistakes.\u00c2\u00a0 Success stories are written that these people succeeded in spite of their past blunders.\u00c2\u00a0 I say they succeeded because of them.<\/p>\n

    Luck certainly plays a role.\u00c2\u00a0 But, luck is a manageable risk.\u00c2\u00a0 You manage it by putting in work even if it doesn\u2019t directly pay out results, but because it has the opportunity to pay out later.<\/p>\n

    Triggers are Sexy, The Investment is What Matters<\/h2>\n

    Focusing on trigger events can mislead you.\u00c2\u00a0 Although success may be lumpy, and those lumps may trickle down because of a sudden change, the sudden change didn\u2019t create the success.\u00c2\u00a0 If you focus too much on trigger events, you can jump between projects, people and pursuits, never getting anywhere.<\/p>\n

    The cause of improvements is the steady, boring investments you make every day, often without seeing any results.\u00c2\u00a0 Since those are the least interesting, they are the easiest to forget.\u00c2\u00a0 And, since they aren\u2019t directly tied to successes, they are the easiest to dismiss.<\/p>\n

    Here are some examples of sexy trigger events versus boring investments:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Exercise <\/strong>– signing up with a new personal trainer versus showing up to the gym<\/li>\n
    • Writing <\/strong>– getting your book published versus writing every day<\/li>\n
    • Business <\/strong>– signing a big contract versus spending time understanding what your customer wants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Why Naively Using the 80\/20 Rule Can Defeat You<\/h2>\n

      People avoid boring investments, not just because they are boring.\u00c2\u00a0 The reason people avoid them is that they aren\u2019t directly tied to success.<\/p>\n

      As a blogger, I know many people that chase after links from huge publications or major social networking exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 And, as someone who has experienced that, I can say it results in a lot of success.\u00c2\u00a0 Writing less headline-grabbing posts on a regular basis seems like a waste of energy if it doesn\u2019t lead to those big hits.<\/p>\n

      But, naively eliminating those investments is a self-sabotage.\u00c2\u00a0 Although my biggest successes in blogging have come from trigger events, they are difficult to engineer.\u00c2\u00a0 Writing quality content, over time, is the surest way to have those trigger events happen.<\/p>\n

      The same thing is true of your health.\u00c2\u00a0 You may find you suddenly drop a lot of weight when you switch to a new diet.\u00c2\u00a0 But constantly switching between diets isn\u2019t going to lead to long-term health the same way that habitually exercising and eating healthy foods will.<\/p>\n

      Applying the 80\/20 Rule is the process of eliminating the events that contribute least to the results.\u00c2\u00a0 But you need to do it intelligently.\u00c2\u00a0 If you eliminate the boring actions that only indirectly contribute to your results, you may eliminate your results all together.\u00c2\u00a0 The 80\/20 Rule should be applied to eliminate the things that aren\u2019t core to your success.<\/p>\n

      Living in a Lumpy World<\/h2>\n

      Steady improvement is a myth.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s more likely that it will come in lumps.\u00c2\u00a0 That can be frustrating, because there isn\u2019t always a direct connection between the lumps and the actions that caused them.\u00c2\u00a0 Avoid getting caught by flashy, trigger events and focus on the core investments that make those lumps possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If you\u2019re want to double your income from $4000 per month to $8000 over a year, what is more likely: Increasing your monthly income by $350 each month. Spending 11 months to go from $4000 per month to $4050, then getting to $8000 in the last month. I\u2019d say that the second, although it seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[683,4],"tags":[26,211,169,275,276,25,277,108],"class_list":{"0":"post-887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nc-career","7":"category-goal-setting","8":"tag-goals","9":"tag-growth","10":"tag-improvement","11":"tag-lumpy","12":"tag-lumpy-success","13":"tag-motivation","14":"tag-stonecutter","15":"tag-success","16":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSteady, Incremental Improvement is a Myth - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/steady-incremental-improvement-is-a-myth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steady, Incremental Improvement is a Myth - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019re want to double your income from $4000 per month to $8000 over a year, what is more likely: Increasing your monthly income by $350 each month. 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