“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”

Why it was said

This line comes from the first chapter of Atomic Habits, where Clear sets out the arithmetic of compounding: a 1 percent improvement each day is too small to notice at first and very large over a year. The sentence turns that arithmetic into a way of judging where you stand.

What it actually means

Results are a lagging measure. Your bank balance, your weight or your sales this month mostly reflect what you did months ago, so they are a poor guide to whether today's habits are any good. Trajectory is the leading measure: the direction your daily behaviour is pointing. Someone with modest results and a good trajectory is in a better position than someone with good results and a bad one, because compounding works in both directions. Clear's advice is to stop grading yourself on the snapshot and start grading the slope, which is also the only thing you can change this week.

How to use it

1. 1Pick one area where the results disappoint you and write down what your typical week looks like there. Ask whether that week, repeated for a year, points up or down.
2. 2Track one leading behaviour, such as sessions done or pages written, alongside the result, and review the behaviour first.
3. 3When a good month tempts you to relax, check whether the habits that produced it are still running.