The 1% Rule
Today’s blog is inspired by Tommy Baker’s book The 1% Rule.
If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to move the needle in your business, whether it is for long term or short term business goals. In key to advancing your business, is to find ways to improve your processes and strategies and to make your work more focused and less stressful and this book gave me the techniques to do just this.
The reality is that we’re only productive for 2-3 hours per day. Our work is not linear. It’s messy, unpredictable and usually quite chaotic. We spend most of the day doubting our abilities to make it work, questioning and overthinking. But believe it or not we need it to be like this, in order for us to grow, to evolve and to step out of our comfort zone. Business is all about breaking the pattern and evolving.
For many tasks, we think that we have to wait for the perfect moment to start, but perfect timing is an illusion. The best time to start is always today because that’s all we’ve got. The trick with the 1% rule is not to wait for the perfect time, but to create it – and create it now.
According to the 1% Rule book, the greatest motivational tool on the planet is PROGRESS. When we feel like we’re moving the needle forwards in life and have purpose, we stay motivated. The single most important thing is meaningful work. This is the basis of the ethos behind the 1% rule. With the power of progress and continuous improvement combined with consistency and time, the compound effect takes over and we start achieving those big hairy audacious goals and reach new heights in our lives and businesses.
So the 1% Rule goes like this:
1% progress + daily application (consistency) + Persistence (focus) + time (endurance) = SUCCESS
So in terms of the maths of this concept, what would moving the needle forward in relevant aspects your life and business using the 1% rule look like after one year?
You might think it would be 1% + 1% +1% and so on to make 365% in a year – which would mean over three times the improvement on a particular area. But you need to take into consideration the power of time, the compounding effects and exponential growth and when you do that, there’s the potential of advancing up to 3700% over a year which is a huge upgrade in terms of our health, relationships, finances, business, all by enacting once small !% daily action and doing it consistently, with persistence and patience.
So where do you start? Choose an area of your life or business that needs addressing. Devote 1% of your day to improving this area (that’s just 15 minutes). What can you do every day to make them 1% better? Integration of the 1% rule every day is vital to its success. It’s the process of going from knowing (insight of the Process) and doing (implementing the process) then ultimately to being. Being is where the magic happens – you’re no longer the concept or the at starting point, or just doing the work. It’s who you are, it’s where being in flow happens, you are in flow.
Embrace the daily consistency of the 1% Rule and you’ll experience big shifts in your life and business goals. It’s built on an inner humility to get the work done and achieve your goals.
Here’s the 1% rule code to help you stay on track and keep going even on the hard days:
Step 1 is to fall in love with the process.
Once you stay consistent and work on your 1% improvement every day, you’ll start to see the changes into the person you want to become – the metamorphosis is happening!
Step 2 is to DO IT EVERY SINGLE DAY!
It’s less about the duration or size of the progress you make and more about making the progress regardless! Like working out, the muscles of focus and consistency get stronger over time. It simply becomes who you are in time.
Step 3 is to celebrate your commitment.
Celebrate a win every day as part of the code. Feeding your inner hero instead of our inner critic, thereby creating more momentum to get the work done.
Step 4 is to track your metrics and data.
Without tracking and knowing the numbers, we can’t make improvements, our emotions can take over and we make bad decisions based on those feelings. Using the 1% rule to track the data means we can see progress and what changes or adaptations we need to make to increase our chances of business success.
And finally step 5 is to master your craft.
There’s no shortcuts here, and as Steven Pressfield would say – “you have to do the work”. Choose one thing to master and step into it every day, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. If you want to master the craft you have to dedicate the time. Your business will thank you for it in the end.
I highly recommend you read this book but until then here’s my action plan to help you get the improvements you want!
Go back over my series of 4 podcasts on the big things that moved my business forward, and get clear on your why, your vision, your mission, your purpose, and values in business. (Your Mission, Your Message and your Mindset in Business Episodes 12-15)
Once you have that done, start identifying the gaps in your business, where do you need to take the leap in life and business? What areas need addressing?
What are the non-negotiables in your life right now, the priorities? For more information on identifying these, go back to episode 4 of my podcast to work it out!
Start implementing the 1% Rule to those – my take on it is because I need to make things tangible is that 1% of your day is 15 minutes. What can you do in 15 minutes a day to improve your health, finances, business plans and objectives, relationships, career, attitude, personal development?
Use the code, use it every day with the 1% question in mind ‘What can I execute right now that will prove that my outcome and vision are not only possible, but coming true?
Remove all distractions as you do the deep work and create the plan.
Go and read the book for yourself if you want to learn more, I couldn’t cover it all here in the blog, but wanted to give you a flavour of how effective these practices could be to you right now if you’re feeling lost, indecisive on which way to turn, or downright fed up with how things are going for you right now!
As always you can contact me at hello@lynseyhanratty.com or book a free Clarity Call if you want any help building getting the 1% Rule embedded in your business today!
