1% Better! Last year’s Scrapbook Projects!
Its January, lets spend some time just reviewing what happened last year with your projects-be honest, no shame here. January is meant for reflection on what is working and what is not! Give yourself some grace here! I have a sheet for you to fill out and really consider. Just click on that button below and fill it out!
This is about becoming 1% better!
I heard a talk by Michael A. Dunn who quoted a story from the best selling book, ATOMIC HABITS by James Clear. He told a story that resonated with me and I hope it will with you, because it is very applicable in multiple areas of our lives.
“…For more than a century, the national bicycle racing teams of great Britain had been the laughing stock of the cycling world. Mired in mediocrity, British riders had managed only a handful of gold medals in 100 years of Olympic competitions and had been even more underwhelming in cycling’s marquee event, the three week long Tour de France-where no British rider had prevailed in 110 years. So sorry was the plight of British riders that some bike manufacturers refused to even sell bikes to the Brits, fearing it would forever sully their hard-won reputations. Despite devoting enormous resources into cutting edge technology and every new fangled training regimen, nothing worked…nothing until 2003 when Sir Dave Brailsford was hired, committed to a strategy he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains”. This entailed implementing small improvements in everything. That meant constantly measuring key statistics and targeting specific weaknesses. The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into a riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
What does this have to do with scrapbooking your projects? Everything!
“…Well acclaimed author James Clear says this strategy puts the math squarely in our favor. He maintains that “habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” If you can get just one percent better at something each day, by the end of a year…you will be 37 times better.”
I found this example so compelling! Deep inside of us, we want to change, improve and when we tap into that power, we experience amplified joy. It just feels so good!
“…Consider what has happened with British cycling in the past two decades since implementing this philosophy. British Cyclists have now won the Tour de France an astonishing 6 times! During the past Olympic games, Great Britain has been the most successful country across all cycling disciplines. In the recent Tokyo Olympics, the UK won more gold medals in cycling than any other country. “
When you look over your Review Sheet and think about your scrapbooking last year, what projects did you finish? What was a stumbling block for you? Allow yourself some time to sink into that. What if you became 1% better in a few areas? How would that feel? Just so you know I printed one and filled it out…here is mine.
My January challenge to each of you, is to PURGE!
Go through your scrapbooking space and clean it off, go through your supplies and purge what you have not used in some time now..be honest with yourself! There are children who would love to play with those supplies and if your style has changed or you KNOW you won’t use it, let it go! Find a happy home for it and open up some space for yourself…this allows new creative energy to flow! It works beautifully! I am in this process right now myself and I am loving it! Fill out your paper and give it serious thought…it is what January is made for! I will be doing this alongside of you! 1% better!