The Aggregation of Marginal Gains͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 
Mione Plant

Art Letters

July 27, 2022

Consistent.

The word I picked in January to be the focus of my year. To be consistent - to continually show up for my personal pillars. It’s importance and impact I didn’t grasp until the later part of last year. When I actively put in effort towards my family, my health, my creativity and my business, they get better; when I don’t, they decline.

Why do some areas feel harder to grow in than others? Why does my willpower come through for some goals but disappears for the rest?

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear shines a light on our willpower and our habits. It’s not a lack of willpower, but how these - for me, many bad - habits have been engrained in our brain over the years. When we set new goals - while we can make great progress at the beginning - we often don’t experience the quick gains we hoped to see. We get discouraged, landing in what he calls “the valley of disappointment”, and we give up.

Instead he encourages us to keep it simple. To focus our efforts towards simply improving 1% each day.

We are not weak. We are also not stuck or stagnant. We can chart new pathways with a single action, which soon become consistent actions.

What does it look like when we improve an area of our lives incrementally by 1%? It adds up. Big.

James Clear, Atomic Habits, jamesclear.com

This is very similar to the concept in finances of compound interest. The small amounts we invest early on, yield big gains over time.

Leanna Kelly, Simple Interest vs. Compound Interest, investmentu.com/simple-interest-vs-compound-interest

If we improve 1% each day (1.01), by the end of the year (365 days) we will be 37 times better than we were before. The mathematical formula looks like this:

1.01^365 = 37.78

How do I take this formula and turn it into a visual reminder?

 

Formula to Visual

I’ve been brainstorming this project since January, but couldn’t land on a visual that felt right to represent the concept of 1.01^365 or 1% daily growth. Like with much of my work, I like to balance the serious with the playful. The effort to improve our habits, our days, our lives can be playful while intentional.

After playing a round of dominos with my son, the symbol became clear. I landed on the above configuration to show
1-o-1-3-6-5

As a continuation of my latest series of hand cut and painted wood panels, I wanted to create 6 large scale dominos (each domino panel could fit 144 traditional dominos).

Unlike my latest work consisting of two wood panels, this work created an opportunity to practice 1% growth as I worked incrementally to measure, saw, sand, gesso, draw and paint 24 edges and 6 faces.

The composition of this painting required I pare down to only 6 key colors. This feels reminiscent of narrowing down our priority list - an act of restraint and acceptance - to focus on the key areas we seek the greatest gains.

The application of resin - a key element in this series - provides a surface of reflection, a reminder to see present in ourselves the growth we seek.

As you look at the composition of this final work - you’ll notice an imbalance at the beginning. There are very few dots as the piece begins - minimal progress as we begin our efforts towards a new goal or habit.

Somewhere between the third and forth domino feels like “the valley of disappointment”. It is only when we get out of the valley, and onto the fifth domino that we become aware of the massive gains we are achieving, as our consistent efforts begin to exponentially rise.

As I reflected on this completed work, I took a moment to look at how it started - my reminder that making small incremental changes significantly impacts my life over time.

Whether from engineer to artist, to mother, towards building up self-respect and breaking down fear - the aggregation of consistent and marginal changes are yielding magical gains.

 

1.01^365 =

 

THE AGGREGATION OF MARGINAL GAINS

THE AGGREGATION OF MARGINAL GAINS
72 x 24 Hexaptych (6-panels)
Acrylic and Resin on Wood

 SHOP THIS WORK 
 

Thank you for the opportunity to share my work and stories with you. If you’d like to share any comments or personal anecdotes, please reply to this message, I love connecting!

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Visit my website or Instagram to see more from my studio

 

Mione Mihokovic Sadeghzadeh Plant

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Mione Plant, 7853 La Cosa Dr, Dallas, United States

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