The One-Percenters

As you are all aware of by now, I’m on a personal mission to increase the quality of my life now that I’m in my mid-forties.  But before I make drastic changes... 

...I thought maybe I should focus on getting the one-percenters right.         

Jordan Peterson said, “Your life isn’t margaritas on a beach in Jamaica, that happens now and again… You get those mundane things right, those things you do every day, you concentrate on them… These little things that are right in front of us, they’re not little… And if you set them right it has a rippling effect, and fast too.  Way faster than people think…”

As much as I’d love to be drinking margaritas on the beach in Jamaica, or even just enjoying a glass of prosecco at the Gold Coast Surf Club (I’m really not that fussy), he seems to have a point.  Life is mostly made up of those repetitive, everyday moments.  Making the bed, drinking your morning coffee, dragging yourself to work, going to the supermarket for the fourth time that week because apparently the family expects to eat every day…

Let’s face it, our day-to-day activities are certainly no highlight reel.  No one wants to watch TikToks of me unloading the dishwasher or folding the clothes.  But maybe, just maybe, these tiny moments are the ones that really matter.  For these are the real moments that make up life, the moments that set the tone for everything else that follows.

In a perfect world, I’d have more money, the perfect body, a beach house, and a Bentley.  How preposterous do I sound wanting these things, when I haven’t properly enjoyed everything that I already have.  The idea isn’t to overhaul my entire existence (however, should I win Tattslotto then all bets are off). 

I want to master the micro-moments; drink more water, walk the dog without resenting the fact that she has more energy than me, talk to my teenage daughters, listen to my teenage daughters (significantly harder), and try to be more present overall.   

These aren’t glamorous changes.  No one will give me a medal for hydration or for breathing deeply when my daughter asks why her netball dress hasn’t been washed (maybe that’s because you never put it in the washing basket, Dear!).  But they’re foundations, the boring but powerful stuff that have the potential to make life smoother, steadier, slightly less chaotic as I enter the second half of my life.

I’m curious to see if getting the small things right has a flow on effect.  If there’s momentum in the mundane.  When we the basics are under control, the dishes, the sleep, the budget, the boundaries, do we start to feel like functioning humans again?

Can the tweaking the tiniest acts create a significant shift in the cosmos?  When the kitchen has been tidied up after dinner, do you sleep better?  When you sleep better, does that urge to road rage during the morning peak stay dormant?  When you don’t have road rage on our way to work, does your day feel calmer?  Maybe there’s hope after all that we can do this midlife thing without spontaneously combusting!

So here I pledge to focus putting all my efforts into leaning into the small stuff.  The everyday stuff that no-one applauds but everyone depends on.  And if I really pay attention, I might just see that Peterson was right; life isn’t built on the big, beach-holiday moments, as lovely as they are, but on the quiet, ordinary ones.  And if I can get those right, even just a little, I’ll be winning.

Lauren x