👋 Hi, there!

I’m Marc, co-founder of Everydae and editor-at-large of this Substack (this is our inaugural post, so just figured I’d say hey).

If you don’t know us yet, our mission at Everydae is to harness the awesome power of elbs to help teenagers become the best version of themselves… one day at a time.

Wait, what’s an elb?

“Elbs are Exponential Little Bits, tiny but relentless changes that compound to make a miracle. The power of an elb lies not in its size, but in its daily occurrence.”

— Roy Williams, The Wizard Academy

In other words…

Consistency is greater than intensity.

For students, academic research (like this) confirms that small daily practice is more effective than cramming right before a test.

Elbs also apply to creativity. Look at the routines of the world’s most renowned artists, and you’ll see they all commit to their craft at least a little bit every day 👩‍🎨.

There’s another term for exponential little bits that you may be more familiar with — compound interest.

People typically talk about compound interest in the context of financial investing 📈. But the concept is equally instrumental to our personal growth, like becoming a star athlete, or learning a new skill 🧠.

"You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better."

— Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden

Prefer taking your advice from the Oracle of Omaha instead of the greatest basketball coach of all time? That’s cool…

“The key to success is to go to bed a little smarter each day. That's how knowledge builds up. Like compound interest."

— Warren Buffet

This is obviously easier said than done (raise your hand if you’ve ever created a New Year’s resolution only to give up before Groundhog Day 🙋🏻‍♀️ ). That’s because most people are doing it wrong. The reason being that we’re quite good at setting goals, but we’re not so great at putting systems in place to ensure we achieve those goals.

There’s an easy “formula” you can use to help your kids (and yourself) create consistency in their daily routines, and grow their elbs. We’ll share this formula in the next post, so don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already👇

🥡 The Takeaway:

Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can accomplish in a year.

If we agree that the key to outstanding achievement is not talent, but persistence, then exponential little bits (elbs) are the building blocks to success.

Ask your teen(s) this question: what is one goal you’d like to achieve in the next 90 days?

If you feel like sharing, write their response in the comments section. We will revisit them in the next post when we share the formula for putting our elbs to work.

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Call it an elb; call it compounding interest. Whatever you call it, maximizing your potential starts with a small step, everydae. 🎉

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