Life is competitive. If you disagree with this, then you never had to apply for a job, lined up for a tram, or competed at sport. When everyone is competitive you want to be closer to the front of the pack to get the good stuff or at least have more options. You may not always need to be first, but you need to be competitive to get anywhere at what you do.
How do you set yourself apart or give yourself more of a chance at success? Do 5 % more.
You must work smarter, not just harder and selecting areas, you can do 5% more in, is smart. The 5% rule applies to all things but is most evident in the basic routine of life, more than an Olympic 100m sprint or Muay Thai bout. 5% more, is a choice, a small effort and really only a little bit more, a small detail but it must be routine. It will work better over time. Like using compound interest for growing success at life.
If you want to do well at school, at your job, enjoy a bushwalk or outperform your work colleagues, do 5% more than them. For this to work you must keep up and work as hard as everyone else and then hang in there that little bit more, stay back more, turn up earlier walk further and train harder. A small percentage increase is easy and something you can see that is achievable, but it takes diligence and awareness. It isn’t easy but it is about outlasting everyone else, just by hanging in there a little bit more.
You don’t have to aim to win, you just have to find areas you can do more than your competitor. Most people, at the first sign of challenge or when routine sets in will start easing off or even quitting. You don’t have to be the last one standing! Just being in the last 5% is well above average. The 5%, like you, are elite. It will take much more to win against them but usually life offers more than one medal for those that can do more, hang in there more and separate yourself from the pack.
If you go to a lookout the view is crowded – walk 5% further and the view clears. Walk another 5% and you are alone, and the view is even better. Crowd always attracts crowds to the easiest part and people look for the easiest path. Go the ‘extra mile’ for greater pride and satisfaction.
If everyone is on their phones too much, spending their lives on social media, you only have to be off your device 5% more than they are, and you will separate yourself from your peers and give yourself more chances at life. Your self-control will improve 5% which is significant.
The extra time can be spent on study, thinking, training, talking, and doing well at something. Put your phone down in the mall, at a bus stop or airport and watch how many people are on the phone. Before a meeting or after the meeting, be the last person to get your phone out and see how you have more chances to talk, liaise or just grasp what you were just talking about. Talking to those around you can be a great experience. One that a bus load of 2020 teenagers just does not understand.
I was in Brisbane last weekend and going on a walk. We walked past an expensive private school, just after finish time – as we walked past the entrance of the school every single student we passed, at least 60 young girls, all waiting for their lift home, was on their phone. No one was interacting with those around them in preference to their phone. It was a like a collection of zombies. I wanted to take a photo! But would have ended up being arrested! Just 5% more self-control and two girls might actually talk to each other or do their homework early. Even an expensive private school has trouble shaping the future generation, when the devices are more attractive than our species has the ability to control the influence of. 5% more realisation that mind control is evil, would help.
Social media (SM) is a disease of the current generation, and we see many young people glued to their phones and joke about it. Parents do it as well and people act like it is ok because they do it too. The attraction is too strong, the devices are too powerful for us! It overpowers us. All hope is not lost, just be off your phone 5% more than everyone else and you will have considerably more awareness and time for own brain to be independent.
Any teenager can learn to stay off their phone – you just have to try – a little bit at a time – have more self-control and discipline. If you can stay off SM more than you peers you will have something 95% of them don’t utilise, more self-control and discipline.
Turn up to training earlier than everyone else and stay back a little longer. Over the year that will be the reason why you are better, why you improve more and why you will get more out of training.
How much do you need to train? Of course, it is not just 5% longer or 5% harder. It is that and more, but it is the extra that really counts. It is the 5% training you do with deliberate practice. That constant effort to do more, will count massively.
Why 5%? Because it is achievable and easy to focus on. It is not much, and your brain can comprehend ‘a little more’. It is often not even competing or trying to win, just waiting around to watch others quit.
I remember some of the hardest Military training I ever did. Everyone worked hard, everyone wanted to be there, and no one wanted to give up. It was a tough group to beat, and you don’t really know how you will cope or be found wanting when it gets cold, and you get hungry, tired and start failing. Every step became hard to take, no one wanted to quit first, but when someone does, others will. I just kept saying, ‘5% more’. Just out last everyone by 5%. People start winging, then coming up with excuses, then their excuses become reality, then people forget what they wanted and why they are there, and they start quitting and rationalising to themselves why it is ok to stop. All I focused on was 5% more and let others worry about believing their excuses. You only have to last longer than the other guys and you pass selection.
That 5% is the key and something to have to practice in everything you do. Practice 5% more and you will beat 95% of people at whatever you want. Even if it’s a bushwalk, you will get more peace and better views from 5% further away from the lookout.
