In our last post, we talked about the 1% rule—polishing one “scale” a day.
I know what you might be feeling right now. You have been polishing that scale for a few weeks. You have been going to the gym, or writing every morning, or saving money.
You look in the mirror, or at your bank account, and nothing has changed.
You are working hard, but the dragon hasn’t woken up. You feel like you are yelling into a void. This is the most dangerous place on the journey to self-improvement.
I call it the Valley of Disappointment.
We often quit here because we don’t understand how progress actually works. To understand it, we need to look at an ice cube.
The Physics of Ice
Imagine an ice cube sitting on a table in a freezing room. It is currently twenty-five degrees (25°F).
Slowly, you begin to heat up the room. 26 degrees. 27 degrees. 28 degrees.
The ice cube is still sitting there. Frozen solid. You are putting in the energy to heat the room, but you see zero results.
29 degrees. 30 degrees. 31 degrees.
Still nothing. If you quit now, you would say, “I wasted all my time heating this room. It didn’t work.”
But then… 32 degrees.
Suddenly, the ice begins to melt. A one-degree shift, which is no different from the shifts before it, unlocked a massive change.
Stored Potential
This is how habits work.
We expect progress to be a straight line. We think if we put in one hour of work, we should get one hour of visible results. But mastery is exponential.
When you are in the early stages of any new habit, you are in the Valley of Disappointment. You expect results, but reality hasn’t caught up yet. This gap creates frustration.
But here is the truth: Your work was not wasted. It was just being stored.
Think about a bamboo tree. You can water a bamboo seed for five years and see absolutely nothing above ground. But underground, it is building a massive root system. It is building the foundation.
Then, in year five, it grows ninety feet into the air in just six weeks.
Did it grow ninety feet in six weeks? No. It grew ninety feet over five years. If it hadn’t built those roots first, it couldn’t support its own weight.
The Stonecutter
There is a famous quote often used by professional athletes. It’s about a stonecutter hammering away at a rock.
He might strike the rock a hundred times without even a crack showing. Yet, at the hundred and first blow, the rock splits in two.
We know it was not that last blow that broke the rock. It was all the hundred blows that came before it.
You are the stonecutter.
- Every time you choose a salad over a burger, you are striking the rock.
- Every time you write a page, you are striking the rock.
- Every time you do a workout when you are tired, you are striking the rock.
You might not see the crack yet. You might be sitting at 31 degrees. But the pressure is building.
Don’t Quit at 31 Degrees
Your mission for this week is simple, but hard.
Don’t quit when you don’t see results immediately. Don’t quit at 31 degrees.
When you feel discouraged, remind yourself: “I am not failing. I am storing potential. I am building the roots. I am heating the room.”
We are playing the long game here. Big fires take time to catch. Keep striking the rock.