Now… give me one more

The Power of One Percent

Title reading instructions:
Pretend you are a personal trainer, hovering a struggling trainee that just completed their workout (push ups or whatever) for today, and you want to push them just a little bit further towards their fitness goal. You lower yourself to their eye level, give them your *I believe in you* look, and say

Now, give me one more!

Naturally, and unlike personal trainers in real workout sessions, you actually mean 1 more, and not 1 more times 10, or whatever number will make the person in front of you cry. Your trainee knows that, so without hesitation they do just that, give you one more.

And scene 🎬.

Wow, that was intense. Did you see the look they gave you as they pushed themselves to complete this one last push up?! Your imagination and attention to details are amazing. Bravo! Call the studios, we have a director on our hands. 👏👏👏

On a less intense note, what if you actually improved your ______ (skill, specific goal, fill in the blank) by one percent? One percent. It should not really be such a change from your current commitment.

By altering your practice toward the positive by one percent on a consistent, daily basis (here is your caveat right there), you’ll reach a level of achievement that could triple itself within a year. If you add a value equal to 1% improvement in a particular area daily, by adding one percent each day (pure addition, no compound investment) your year-end result will be 365 percent, or an improvement of 3.5 times.

Practicing 1% state of mind is also a manageable way to achieve your goals in a more agile way, where each day is a sprint. With each new sprint, you implement past lessons and ensure you push yourself just a little bit further, while reaching the sprint immediate goal. This is a classic implementation of taking care of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

Don’t know how to coach yourself? look at that, your first goal right there. Start practicing and figure this out 1% at a time. Already coaching yourself? Great! Choose something you want to work on, measure what you have done today, and add 1% tomorrow. No need for soul searching and retrospecting about your life thus far. Today is your baseline, it is that simple.