0.1% Excellence Rule
Improve one small part of the day when perfection is impossible
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
The 0.1% Excellence Rule replaces perfection with a small, controllable improvement. Williams recalls a training corporal telling recruits that even after a day of failed tests, doing one extra thing could leave them moving in a better direction than the day before. The mechanism is to accept the imperfect result, identify one useful action still under your control, and complete it before the day ends. Repeating that choice turns excellence into continued striving and maximum honest effort rather than a claim of flawlessness. Williams later applies the same idea to running farther and maintaining a sense of progress outside the military. The percentage is motivational language rather than a measured scientific rate; the practical test is whether something specific improved.
Origin
Williams says a corporal taught him during Royal Marines training to aim for at least 0.1% improvement each day rather than perfection.
Core principles
- 01Perfection is unavailable but improvement is actionable
- 02A bad day can still contain one positive increment
- 03Judge excellence by sustained high effort
- 04Small gains preserve forward direction
How to run it
- 1
Drop perfection
Acknowledge that the day, result, or performance is imperfect. Keep the standard high without pretending flawless performance is attainable.
Watch out Do not use imperfection as permission to ignore a required minimum standard.
- 2
Find one increment
Choose one concrete action that would make the day slightly better than it would otherwise have been. Keep it small enough to complete now.
Pro tip Prefer an observable action over a vague intention to try harder.
- 3
Apply full effort
Complete the action to the highest honest standard you can manage. Excellence here means striving, not guaranteeing that you outperform others.
- 4
Carry direction forward
Record the improvement and select another small increment for the next repetition. Use the sequence to maintain direction through uneven results.
Pro tip Name what changed rather than assuming the percentage was literally measured.
In the wild
Williams says his corporal taught that a recruit could fail every test in a day and still do one extra thing that improved the day by 0.1%. The point was not to erase the failures but to leave the day heading in a more positive direction.
→ One controllable action preserved progress despite a poor overall result.
After leaving the military, Williams says he used running to keep striving for excellence. He focused on going farther rather than competing on time, linking the practice back to his corporal's 0.1% lesson.
→ A simple training measure restored a repeatable sense of forward motion.
Common mistakes
Treating 0.1% as a measured law
The transcript presents the figure as a motivational rule, not a scientifically established daily growth rate.
Mistaking motion for a meaningful gain
The extra action should improve a real skill, standard, or outcome rather than merely create activity.
Is it for you?
Best for
People building skills or habits through repeated effort who need a concrete minimum for a difficult day.
Not ideal for
Urgent failures where a tiny improvement would leave a serious safety, legal, or operational problem unresolved.
From the transcript
“If you do not put what 0.1% better every day, at least you're heading in the right direction.”
“you could fail every test, but if you do something extra that day”
“you can never achieve perfection”
From the episode
Suicidal Drug Addict To Elite Military Commando with Ben Williams