3,678%. That's how much progress you would make if you got just 1% better every day for 365 days.

It sounds good in theory, but what happens when you actually put it into practice and make an honest attempt to apply the 1% principle for a full year?

I wanted to find out so at the start of 2025 I committed to 365 days of calisthenics, but not to get 1% more ripped, or 1% better in my calisthenics skills every day.

Instead, every day, my aim would be to get:

I see all forms of movement, first and foremost as a brain exercise because it requires deep mind-body connection.

Calisthenics happens to be my chosen form of movement, but basically any form of movement that requires deeply engaging the mind falls into this idea — dancing, yoga, Pilates, climbing, swimming.

You name it. These forms of movement, are the underpinnings of high-level brain function.

So for me the goal was to experiment with this idea by doing calisthenics for 365 consecutive days to strengthen my mind, improve my focus, and my decision-making by just 1% every single day.

And honestly, I think I’m way smarter after a full year of daily movement.

But not in the way you might be thinking, so in this article I’m going to share with you exactly how it changed my brain and made me operate at a much higher frequency.

I want to be fully transparent with you.

Calisthenics is my primary form of movement. However, I think one of the most important aspects of being extraordinarily consistent, is to keep things interesting enough to actually show up every day.

Because consistency is more important than nuance.

So calisthenics made up about 80-90% of my training, and I gave myself space to explore and try other things outside of calisthenics to break the monotony. I signed up for the occasional cycling class. I did Pilates a few times here and there. I went climbing. I did boxing.

There were also days where I was super busy or I was traveling, and I might not meet some people’s definition for working out on those days.

But for me, once again, consistency is the name of the game, so I created some rules for myself that set a bare minimum of movement. Whether you want to call it a workout or not, that’s up to you.

But for the bare minimum I’d do 100 pushups and 100 bodyweight squats or some equivalent to that. For me that’s about 10-15 mins of exercise that I can do on the spot anywhere, at any time, with no preparation in cases when I didn’t have the time, or sometimes the motivation, to do a full-on calisthenics workout.

So when I would travel, I’d do pushups in the middle of the airport like a crazy person. Or in my hotel room I’d do some handstand pushups.

The point is that, I did not have some extremely strict definition of a workout.

I wanted to capture the spirit of intentional movement on a daily basis for the purpose of seeing if I could be more focused, mentally sharper, and make better decisions after a full 365 days of doing it.

It’s the people you interact with that influence your perceptions of reality, your mindset, and what you believe is actually possible.

Since I was in a calisthenics park somewhere in the world almost every day, I ended up unexpectedly running into guys like Adam Frater and Andry Strong, as well as CalisthenicAlchemy, who turned into a good friend of mine.

In fact we met up in London to do some training together, and he’s leveling up so much in his own life that, some of the conversations we had inspired me, and gave me a blueprint to breaking through some of my self-imposed limitations.

This is just a small handful of examples of the many connections I’ve made simply from being at a calisthenics park every day.

I met countless entrepreneurs, special forces operators, ultra-marathon runners, etc.

In fact, the first person to join The Focus Algorithm private network is the Founder/CEO of a tech company who’s trying to stay locked in so he can make a successful exit in 2026. We bonded over a shared philosophy of living intentionally and executing on a vision with ruthless intensity.

There’s so much to gain in life through engaging with people who’ve accomplished things, and are actively pursuing similar goals as you.

So the connections I made just from showing up consistently have significantly elevated the standards that I hold myself to.

Kill Distractions. Get Focused. Execute.

Since I got into the routine of exercising every day. It changed my identity.

For the past 10 years I’ve consistently worked out, and for the past 6 years I’ve consistently done calisthenics.

But I had a mental shift from being a guy who works out a lot, to being someone who shows up literally every day purely in the spirit of self-mastery. Not most days. Not 5 days a week. But EVERY day.

Then I started stacking new habits on top of this identity.

So it felt like a natural next step for me to quit consuming alcohol.

Then after that I had this newfound mental clarity that inspired me to quit social media altogether.

This created a flywheel effect where I feel myself gaining more momentum, and making big life-altering decisions is becoming increasingly easier.

Decisiveness means quicker feedback. Quicker feedback means rapid iteration… and knowledge, intelligence, confidence are all built through the iterative process that leads to more refined processes for thinking and executing.

Slowly noticing my handstands getting better, and my one-arm pullups getting easier, and unlocking new skills purely through volume and repetition provided me with a consistent source of healthy dopamine.

That is extremely underrated in a world that’s otherwise awash in cheap dopamine.

I started to really appreciate long term-satisfaction of experiencing personal growth that comes from focusing on one thing with extraordinary consistency over time.

So now I approach my business very differently than I did a year ago. I approach this blog differently too

I feel like I have less of a transactional mindset, and more of an exploration mindset where I do things and I’m open to seeing what comes of it, rather than trying to force specific outcomes.

I find that having the mindset of an explorer keeps the mind open to learning, to discovering new ideas, and having previously held assumptions challenged.

I believe all of these things lead to unforeseen payoffs in the long-run.

In the course of the year, several people approached me about fitness coaching.

It’s not a core part of my business, but since I’ve done it in the past, if someone reaches out for help then I will make an exception.

But here’s the thing.

Most of them told me about how shredded they want to be, and how they want to elevate and become this new version of themselves.

But when I check back in with them after a couple of weeks, after a month, after 2 months… they tell me that they haven’t started yet.

They’re waiting until next week, or until after some milestone date passes.

As they are procrastinating, I’m working out.

So every day that they don’t start, that’s another day of separation I’m creating between myself and them.

It put things in perspective that the threshold for excellence is usually way higher than you think, and people severely underperform against that threshold.

Taking this new perspective and flipping it around to re-evaluate my own life, I also see that I want extraordinary results in my business, in my YouTube channel, in my relationships, even in my inner peace, but I’m not showing up for myself every day the way I need to for those particular areas.

So now, for these things, I’ve redefined what the bar for performance is.

I’m way more sensitive to the idea that if you want to live like most people cant, then you have to commit in a way that most people wont.

So this commitment that I’ve made to doing calisthenics every day, I’ve made similar commitments now other areas of my life where I’ve been underinvesting.

So when I say that doing 365 days of calisthenics made me 3,678% smarter, what I really mean is that all of these factors have made me think and operate at several orders of magnitude higher than before, and I’ve made tangible lifestyle changes to show for it.

If you’re also trying to let go of the trivial things in your life that are holding you back from executing on your personal mission, and to start showing up for yourself more consistently, then add yourself to the waitlist to my private network, view The Focus Algorithm hub for all other resources, or schedule a one-time consultation with me.