I recently watched McGregor Forever, the latest docuseries on Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor.
Love him or hate him, Conor’s achievements are impressive. I don’t really watch fights or care about the sport at all, but I took away a nugget of wisdom from the series that has stuck with me.
It’s bang-on with the mindset of One Percent Wisdom: small wins add up.
Here it is:
Set a time to train. Train at that time.
Set a time to go to sleep. Go to sleep at that time.
Set a time to get up. Get up at that time.
Don’t tell yourself you need to do something and then don’t do it.
…
I knew in my head, I was saying…
Get up at this time. I didn’t get up at that time.
Train at this time. I didn’t train at that time.
Don’t eat this. I ate that.
Don’t drink that, I drank it.
And these all just infiltrated my mental strength.
Interviewer: Just little kind of…defeats?
Exactly, exactly! Little defeats, instead of wins.
And it just culminates into…ahhh!
And you just don’t want to be here.
So, I’m just figuring myself out, like I’ve never figured myself out before.
Watch the 40-second clip on YouTube, courtesy of One Percent Club (no affiliation).
Little Defeats
For context, Conor is talking about how his training and nutrition regimen slipped when he got the top of his game, which led to an embarrassing defeat in the ring.
These “little defeats” didn’t matter in the moment.
It wasn’t that missing one workout made him weak.
It wasn’t that eating one extra dessert put him over the edge.
Instead, it was the cumulative effect of all these tiny choices. All of these tiny defeats started to get into his head, and “infiltrated his mental strength.”
I believe there’s wisdom in that mindset.
Every day, we’re confronted with countless choices. What to eat. What to work on. What to say. What to do.
Each of these represents an opportunity for growth, development, and transformation.
By focusing on the little moments in a day, we can collect little wins that can propel us forward.
The Progress Principle
When I first heard Conor talk about little defeats, it reminded me of the Progress Principle. This is the inverse of little defeats, it’s about the power of little wins.
Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and researcher Steven J. Kramer set out to understand the best way to drive innovative, productive, and creative work inside organizations.
They took 26 different project teams, composed of 238 individuals, and asked them to record daily diary entries about their experience at work. They reviewed nearly 12,000 diary entries from this cohort and found something surprising.
They discovered that “of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.”
They named this the Progress Principle.
Progress > Perfection
I think about this principle a lot, and it’s helped me reframe my mindset away from perfectionism.
Perfectionism gets in the way of me making progress, taking risks, and going for it.
Perfectionism also gets in the way of me starting.
When I’m focused on progress instead of perfection, I find a much cleaner and more sustainable source of motivation.
I’ve been taking the idea of collecting little wins in my day in much the same way.
Can I avoid checking my phone for the first hour of the day? Little win.
Can I get a walk and sunshine before my first coffee? Little win.
Can I eat some fruit instead of some dessert? Little win.
A day doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good day.
A workout at the gym doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good workout.
A writing session doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good writing session.
Just by showing up and putting in the time and effort, I can count these as little wins.
I’ve found this little shift in mindset has helped me a lot. It’s actually fun to try and collect these little wins. The enjoyment makes the process easier. It feels less effortful.
Try it on for size and let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading.