My Year of '1% Better, Every Day'

Sharing the non-resolution from last year that I’m taking with me in 2025.

Sundaze Book Café is the home of everyday magic, joyful living and conversations likely to be had over a hot drink with a friend in your favourite café, capturing the syrup-slow feel and glow of a Sunday. I’m Michelle, and I’ll be your host this Sunday.

After years of feeling let down by the world¹, I decided that – in lieu of normal resolutions and goals – 2024 would be my year of living my life 1% better, every day. The concept was simple: each day, I do something that makes my life feel better than the one before. No grand ideas to learn a new language in 365 days, no spectacular thought of daily habits, no pressure to do anything but focus on the day ahead of me.

I’m continuing this mantra for 2025, and I really encourage you to do the same.

Elevating the everyday is something that everybody is talking about at the moment. The world feels terrifying and it’s totally understandable that we want to focus on the now and the joyful, since the future feels so foggy and far away. And this goes hand in hand with my 1% better, every day concept.

The societal norm governs many of our big milestones early in life and then dumps us, untethered, in our early twenties. It’s no wonder that so many struggle to find a sense of self, meaning and purpose amongst it all. Suddenly, we’re not working to the same milestones of finishing school, university, getting grades, anymore – we’re left to our own devices with nearly no life experience to speak of. The good news is your twenties and beyond were made to be a little reckless and collect life experience like Pokémon cards². Even better news: there’s surely no deadline or rush to make your life feel good. Instagram and other fast-moving social media apps only want you to think that way and focus attention on making your life look a certain way.

Now that I’m graciously in my thirties, I couldn’t be happier to slow down and really soak in life’s minutiae. Instead of waking up and deciding I’ll be a ‘5am wellness girlie with a clean girl aesthetic’³, I look at why I want to do that. Do I want to feel more energised? Eat a little more fruit and veg? Switch up my sleeping routine? Then, I pick a way to upgrade my life by 1% the next day. Perhaps that is waking up at 5am. But, more likely, I simply want to hydrate more, and eat more fruit than the day before. There; 1% better.

Alongside my years-long journalling habit that gives me the headspace to reflect on my life, often, my ‘1% better, everyday’ mantra has slowly opened up my little life so I’m living with more grace, more composure, more mindfulness and deliberation. Instead of trying to pick up a billion new habits for the year, I’m taking on one small thing per day. Last year, this meant I grew into the habit of taking outdoor walks and picnics whenever the weather permitted. I made time for myself after particularly busy days at work. I learned I needed to balance a sociable weekday evening with plenty of quiet time on the next morning.

Each day, I do something that makes my life feel better than the one before. No pressure to do anything but focus on the day ahead of me.

1. The pandemic, UK and US politics, genocide and the so-called Cost of Living to name a few.

2. I’m so grateful that despite many generational differences, Pokémon still somewhat holds its relevance and cultural currency.

3. The irony being that I’ve yet to spot an Instagram/TikTok aesthetic reflective of somebody that looks like me.