Is chasing marginal gains in life worth it ?

Lately we have been thinking about why so much emphasis has been put on getting just 1% better? It makes sense from the view point that every human who has ever climbed a mountain has done it one step at a time. Not by leaps and bounds. But what if you found out you were climbing the wrong mountain? Or that the terrain was getting more treacherous faster than you could keep up?

Are you on the right path?

This is the most critical point! If you read nothing else in this post, then at least read this.

So much of our lives are on auto-pilot that we may not even realize that the path in front of us is not necessarily our path, but just one that society has created. If your struggling with finances, then why is this? This past summer ChooseFI released a podcast episode (335) that details the “standard life script” from graduating high school, through raising children, and retiring at 65. This episode almost gave me a panic attack, you want to know why? Because it was eerily specific and I could see where we stuck to the path and where we veered off.

Now let us be perfectly clear, you can find happiness working a 9-5, having your children grow up in one community, and retiring at 65 to enjoy your golden years. Although, for us, we don’t necessarily want all those things. The Financial Independence movement showed us that there was another way. So now we are forging our own path, borrowing bits from others, and making it work for us.

While we don’t have “everything worked out” yet, we are happy that we are doing what we want to do in life and not what others want for us.

Determining your end goal

When you don’t know what you are working towards it may be hard to make progress by just chasing marginal gains. However, if you have a vision for your ideal future then it may be easier to get going.

Dream journals have been around for many years and I thank my wonderful sister for giving me my first. While I resisted at first thinking “What is that going to help?” I eventually worked through some of the exercises and started tracking my goals. During this time I formulated a clear vision (that got this blog started), began working out at home (after resisting for months), and going to the gym with my husband (which I would have never done before).

The important part is to not edit yourself, allow yourself to dream. Don’t over think it and set yourself a 5 min timer.

Complete the following steps as if money or time was not a factor:

1. Write down what your life could be like in 10 years from now.
2. In that same scenario: Where would you need to be in 5 years from now?
3. Then in 3 years from now?
4. Then in 1 year from now?

I think of this experiment as more creating a vision for yourself rather than setting firm goals that you may not be able to achieve due to factors outside of your control. For example, your dream could be to “Become a successful freelancer,” but what we are looking at here is what core values you will focus on during the process of working towards that goal.

To give you some ideas, here is one that I came up with:

Becoming a successful freelancer could provide you a life where…

1. Ten years:
   • Have a home
   • A loving family
   • Maintain good health
   • Be able to travel
   • Don’t worry about money
2. Five years:
   • Buy, build, or rent a more permanent home
   • Work a four day work week
   • Prioritize family and health
   • Take a family trip to a place we’ve never been before
   • Invest in accessible accounts
3. Three years:
   • Save for a down payment
   • Test fully remote work
   • Start a family
   • Refresh focus on health for the entire family
   • Increase my annual income
4. One year:
   • Work on personal growth
   • Broaden my networks to gain accountability partners
   • Form healthy habits
   • Seek out additional income streams

Rather than chasing arbitrary marginal gains, dreaming big and then walking backwards can give you an idea of what path you should take in order to make those gains have an impact.

Since you have can have more than one big dream, look at the common thread between them. If your main dream is to become a well published author in 10 years, this year start a daily writing habit. If after a month you realize that this is not for you, then go back to your core values and see what other options you can explore.

Why focus on values rather than goals?

Have you ever landed your “dream job,” just to find out that it wasn’t the right fit for you? This is why looking at the underlying values may be a better route.

Back in High school I had a dream to become a famous cancer researcher and win a Nobel prize. Well after years of working, I did reach a Scientist title in the cancer field, but it was too far removed from my core value of helping people. Now I have changed my path and am currently helping people through my research, blog, and as a Nutrition Coach.

So, keep in mind that if you find yourself on the “wrong path” that’s ok! We have all been there, just take it as a learning experience because every part of our journey is what makes us unique. As long as you are still alive, there is an opportunity for something new. Treat every day as a blessing, not all progress is lost and not all gains are marginal.

Now that you have a vision…

Are your marginal gains keeping pace with life’s inflation?

If you only make one change this year to get 1% better, are you keeping up with the inflation of life? Most likely not. Life has a way of gradually or rapidly turning up the heat. A rent increase here, one extra project there. It doesn’t seem like much at first, but it can compound over time.

So if you are only accruing marginal gain of 1-2%, but life is getting 5% more challenging. How long can you go before you are under water?

Its no wonder people get burnt out at a job, with trying to get healthier, or with finding their purpose. These require a massive investment of your time, energy, and focus. Sometimes you just hit a breaking point where you are fed up with not making progress.

Identifying what is holding you back

Recently I started reading a book called “Do It Scared” by Ruth Soukup. The premises is that we all have fear because it is a part of the human experience. However, we should learn to identify what is holding us back and how to overcome it.

I am perfectly fine admitting that I am a Perfectionist/Procrastinator. I want things to be done right and I want to be in control. If I don’t have some accountability then I can be left at a stand still.

However, identifying my struggles allowed me to create a new technique where I balance multiple projects that all have self imposed deadlines. When I am worried about one, I’ll work on the other. I call it productive procrastination! While I haven’t quite figured out all the bugs yet, it is helping me move in the right direction.

Think about what is holding your back: Check out Ruth’s Ted Talk to discover more.

Evaluating your foundation

As a scientist and generally curious person, I find myself questioning almost everything. When I hear about a new topic online, my thoughts are to go directly to the source. I like to fact check and see if the claims and statements are actually backed up.

If you are in the financial independence movement, how did you get there? I’m sure hours, weeks, months, or even years of searching, reading and listening to experts in the space. Carefully crafting your theory on what is best for your personal journey. However, you may know people who jumped on the NFT bandwagon and think the stock market is more risky than crypto.

If you start a new diet, what made you choose what kind? You may have researched ways to reduce inflammation, increase energy, and boost your immune system through food. Or perhaps you were looking for a healthy lifestyle that will help you manage a chronic illness. Either way, a lot of time and effort goes into the decision. However, at the same time there are people that literally follow the “Bro Science” and will do whatever fad diet comes by just to get quick wins.

The point is that you want to be standing on solid ground. Do your research and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you put time and effort into building your foundation (while maintaining an open mind when new information is available) you’ll be set on a path where the marginal gains compound in the right direction.

Are you crossing off more than you put on the list?

In order to make real progress in life, we do have to climb that mountain. However, what we thought would be a short 2 hour hike may turn into a long and grueling 6 hour hike, because we didn’t take into account elevation change.

Everyday, prioritize no more that 3 tasks to complete. If you don’t feel like you have the time or are just being pulled in multiple directions, start with just one task per day.

Forming habits to get ahead

It’s great to think that you should just be internally motivated enough to make things happen. That this is your life, and that your passion should be enough to drive you to action. Although, it does take more energy to make change than it does to stay in place. The only difference is that taking steps towards a larger goal can bring you a greater sense of purpose of achievement.

Now, marginal gains aren’t all that bad. If you want to take steps in the right direction, take a tip from the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. Break your project into small tasks, and focus on only the immediate next action.

One technique is to break your day up into designated blocks of time, this way you are focused on one and only one task at a time. You can use the Pomodoro technique, where each time block is 25 min, with a 5 min break in between to get up and stretch or take a walk. Try stitching two blocks of time together for 50 min of focused work and a 10 min break at the end.

Fun fact: The Pomodoro technique was created in the 1980s by researcher Francesco Cirillo, and was named after a tomato shaped timer Cirillo used as a student.

Try a checklist

If you like to be more flexible with time, maybe a daily checklist will help you. Write a checklist of daily habits to keep you moving towards your goals.

On October 1st, we released our Eat for Health daily tracker Level 1. I wanted to get back on track with having regular green smoothies. In a matter of two weeks, I have become much more consistent and averaged at least 5-6 smoothies a week, up from my 1-2/week. Focusing on your health is an investment that will return you dividends well above marginal gains.

Note: Interested in improving your health through nutrition? Give this tracker a try by subscribing today. We are also holding a free workshop on Lifestyle Medicine on November 10th: complete our survey and RSVP here.

Sign up today to download your Free “Eat for Health” habit tracker!

One last point though before we go…

Don’t be afraid to say “No”

When your list keeps getting longer and you never feel like you can catch up, the best thing you can do is start saying no! My brother recently told me to remember that:

I like this sentiment. Until we learn how to clone ourselves, we really can only be in one place, doing one thing at a time. Even though we like to think that we can multi-task, instead we just become mediocre across the board. So stop chasing the marginal gains of stacking multiple tasks, and give one task your undivided attention (as much as possible).

Be careful of what you commit to, and if it seems like you have taken on too much, don’t add more to your plate. If you consistently cross off three tasks a day, while promising less than three new tasks, you will eventually be able to strike a balance.

Moving forward in a big way

Marginal gains are great as long as they are moving you in the right direction. However, let’s be honest, it takes a lot of work to evaluate where you are at in life and if this is the path you want to continue down. I challenge you to do the exercise on “Determining your end goal” and then focus on what values you find important. Identify whether you are keeping pace with life’s inflation and work to form habits that will allow you to start crossing more off your list than you put on. Make a checklist for daily habits that you want to build or layout deadlines for yourself if no one else will. Be forgiving, if you don’t reach these goals, reevaluate what techniques work for you and try something different.

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