The Expectation Myth
Our expectations are sky high, and we’re prone to giving up at the first sign of struggle or obstacles. We give up and give in because our reality didn’t match our expectations. We justify our sky-high expectations by blaming others for our lack of results.
The Be-All, End-All Myth
The first iteration of your goals is never the end result—the magic is in the pivot. Without starting and jumping into the cold water, you’ll never clearly see the pivot and the opportunity in front of you, no matter what area of life you’re in.
The Perfect Timing Myth
instead of starting today, we wait. We sit on the sidelines, watching life pass us by while the clock continues to tick in the background. Our obsession with the highlight reel gives us another debilitating illusion: There’s a perfect time to get started—and it’s not right now.
The Challenge Myth
In a world where most see adversity as failure, enduring and breaking through to the other side is rare, and therefore, valuable. This means adversity is not only part of the equation, but a gift and a test designed to see how committed you are to your goals.
We will experience challenges, adversity, and chaos at least once every single day. Operating under this ethos allows us to not be surprised, but rather to get excited when it comes. We recognize this, knowing our competition will fold when faced with a similar circumstance, as would have our prior selves.
Ditch The Highlight Reel
ditch the highlight reel once and for all. Letting this mindset go will deepen your confidence in yourself, and allow you to focus on what’s in front of you.
Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way, it’s time to identify the core mindset you’ll be operating under going forward.
The 1% Rule
The greatest motivational tool on the planet is not an inspiring video on YouTube, a dance-party seminar, or visualizing the moment you walk on stage.
It’s progress—even the mere perception of it.
When we feel we’re moving the needle forward in life, even a seemingly insignificant amount, we stay motivated. Progress keeps us inspired and on track. So here’s the rule:
1% progress + daily application (consistency) + persistence (focus) + time (endurance) = success
The math is simple. Ask yourself: If I moved the needle forward 1% in every area of my life, every single day, what would my life look like in one year?
Unshakeable Foundation
Unfortunately, most content, coaches, or consultants start by stacking on a shaky foundation. It’s not a matter of if chaos is going to hit—it’s a matter of when. We can have a well-thought-out backup plan, but you and I know life will throw us curveballs time and time again.
The good news is the 1% Rule was designed to build an unbreakable, undeniable foundation for your life, stacking brick after brick until you’ve got a masterpiece.
Do It Daily
One of the main reasons the 1% Rule will obliterate other forms of goal setting and achieving results is simple: You’re required to move forward every single day.
Writing a piece on writing tips for the New York Times (Grisham 2017), he elaborates:
“Write a page every day,” he advises at the top of a list of eight writing tips he published in the New York Times recently. “That’s about 200 words, or 1,000 words a week. Do that for two years and you’ll have a novel that’s long enough. Nothing will happen until you are producing at least one page per day.”
This is the 1% Rule in full force, the foundation being built day by day. If it’s important, you’ll follow through and persist. You’ll push through the moments you’re overwhelmed and it’s a rainy Tuesday morning and you truly don’t want to do it.
In fact, the 1% Rule has its own code, which we’ll explore next.
Code #1: Fall In Love With The Process
It’s about falling in love with the process. Once we do, we’re able to put our limited physical, mental, and emotional energy into it with everything we’ve got. The process is the metamorphosis of who you’ve been to who you’re becoming.
Without this foundational principle, we’ll crumble. Inherently, the process involves challenging moments, breakthroughs, and everything in between. If we expect these to happen, they won’t divert us, and we’ll keep sharpening our sword every single day.
Code #2: Do It Every Single Day
As long as we’re moving 1% daily, we harness the incredible powers of the rule. It’s less about the size and duration of the progress and more about the fact that we’re making progress that counts.
There are things you and I already do every single day because they’re important. We shower, we brush our teeth, we tell our significant others we love them, we fire up our computer, etc. At first glance, committing to doing something every single day can seem daunting, but it’s the opposite. It takes the pressure off and allows us to flex the muscle of consistency.
Code #3: Celebrate Your Commitment
A crucial part of the code is celebrating our wins, even the small, seemingly insignificant ones. Emphasis is on the word seemingly, because the size and scope of the win doesn’t matter—it’s the fact you won, and it must be acknowledged.
Every single day, we celebrate a win we experienced as we use the 1% Rule. These micro-wins create the momentum and clarity required to get us to the more expansive wins and outcomes we’re chasing. They force us to open up our awareness, and we feed our inner hero instead of our inner critic. They remind us to not judge ourselves and instead appreciate our growth.
Code #4: Track Your Metrics & Data
Although this part of the code won’t light you up with inspiration, it’s essential to clearly see the inputs and outputs of our work. Without tracking, we live in a fantasy, which makes decision-making, pivoting, and knowing what’s working or not a nightmare.
If we don’t have accurate data, our emotions and feelings start to take over, and we base our decisions off those. While emotions and feelings serve a purpose, they’re always changing by default and can’t be relied on. Our feelings and emotions are like the ocean tide, while data and metrics are more like mountains. Peter Drucker famously said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” In this context, it’s never been more relevant and true.
Code #5: Master Your Craft
Regardless of what your craft may be, the mindset and components of mastery are proven to transcend skill and scope. While the 1% Rule will be used for every part of your life, your ability to focus on a specific craft will separate you from your competition.
Deliberate practice. It’s easy to practice a skill and do what we’re good at. Can you instead spend the time on what challenges you?
Invest thousands of hours. Mastery takes time, there’s no way around it. Expect to invest in thousands of hours to deliberate practice as you sharpen your skills.
Long-term consistency. It’s easy to invest time and effort in a skill when it’s new. Once you start to become decent at it, it can become boring. Embracing this and pushing past to a place where you endure will make you invaluable to any marketplace.