It’s something I heard as an athlete throughout my career. It’s something I try to teach my own softball team, when just learning the game itself seems overwhelming.
You’ve all seen it before – whether in your own experience, or while watching your own little athletes play a sport. A coach gathers the team together in a huddle at practice. Everyone is exhausted, sweat drips down everyone’s face. The coach stands tall and declares:
“We need to get 1% better today. 1% better today, 1% better tomorrow, the next day, and every day after.”
That’s it. 1% at a time. For me in my playing days that meant hitting 7 out of 10 pitches solidly instead of 6 during batting practice. It could mean running just a little more quickly down the soccer field, or whipping through that flip turn at the wall just a tad bit faster before swimming to the finish. Or it could mean doing one extra agility drill before heading home from practice, or maybe showing up a little bit early to do some extra stretching to ensure you’re ready to go when the rest of your team arrives.
What if we considered ourselves athletes, looking at each other in the huddle, vowing to become 1% better every day?
Let’s say you regularly make it to class 13x per month. What if you came 14? How much better would your workout feel?
Maybe you get 6 hours of sleep on a regular basis. Could you go to bed 5 minutes earlier? What about 10 minutes? How much better would your tomorrow be?
When out with friends enjoying a burger at your favorite restaurant, could you sub the fries for veggies instead? How much better would your results be?
After CrossFit, could you stick around an extra few minutes to finish your accessory work? How much stronger would you be?
We’re huddled together, looking each other in the eye. Imagine what we could accomplish together, 1% at a time…
Leslie
Cypher Health & Fitness
