I want to share some great tidbits from the book The 1% Solution by Tom Connellan. I enjoyed reading this book. It was a easy read with a nice steady flow. This review is written from a perspective of how it can be applied to life. There were some things that I didn't agree with in the book, but I understood the thought process. I hope that some piece of this information you can apply and grow in your life and/or share with others. Doing 1% better than yesterday. To have a spirit of friendly competition, but not one of depletion to where it gets you down. If you didn't win at this one, you will win at the next attempt. That is what having a winner's heart is. I will win next time, getting back up. To always try to do something better than you did yesterday, even if it is at a 1% increase better than yesterday. Everybody can be greater than they are right now. You won't be 100% better, but you can be 1% better. Its time, continually making small targeted improvements.
People be ready to make shifts in your life, leave behind old habits, the old way of doing things, the negative beliefs of yourself and others. You can look forward to excitement and fulfillment, there will be challenges along the way, Make the shift in your life. Becoming aware of yourself. To give yourself time to think about it, to make a commitment to yourself. Waking up and seeing romance lighting in the sunrise and the sunset.
To take 180 days of focused growth and help someone focus their growth. Learn the keys to excellence. Take the honor of passing the keys onto others. People need to find their pace and letting them enjoy finding their flow. Not everyone can be great, but everyone can be greater than what they are right now. To aim to be swifter, higher, stronger, not the swiftest, highest, strongest, this will eliminate perfectionism.
If you increase action, your motivation will increase. Motivation comes from accomplishing something. An example of something you had to overcome. A place to start is by doing something small, then your motivation goes up and you get more done. Then follow up with a high five or pat yourself on the back. Have goal clarity, write them down, and be decisive of what you want and don't want. Put motion into action. Perform a task that contributes to your overall goal. Focus on actions towards your goal.
There are two concepts, the first is effectiveness which is doing the right thing. The second is efficiency which is doing things right. Make sure that you're doing the right thing, that your effective. That you are efficient at doing it, meaning doing it really well. There is no point in doing something good that you have no business of doing at all. One action that you do that you can do better. Can you do it better for the next 30 days? Begin the action tomorrow.
Actions that achieve my goals are effectiveness and getting good at them is efficiency. The Newton's law of motion. Unless acted upon by an outside force, a body at rest stays at rest. A body in motion stays in motion. The force comes out to make you act. A hit to put in motion. We need to focus on small shifts in our actions that produce large shifts in our results. Put your focus on where it needs to be. Treat people in a more respectful and positive manner.
Once you see results, you will be willing to try new things. To build momentum. To engage motivation into action. Combining leverage and momentum together to merge into an engagement. In different areas of your life, be fully engaged. The laws of physics apply to everything around us. Focus on career, personal health, fitness, learning a new skill, or honing one. Did I focus enough on each part of myself today? Did I show love today? Did I do something special for someone today? Taking action overcomes inertia, holding you in one place.
Start looking for the right leverage that brings outsized results compared to the effort you put in. Finding small shifts in actions that can lead to large shifts in your results. The job behaviors equals job results. Combing momentum, leverage, and a ripple effect leads to engagement. Master quiet confidence. Always keep moving forward. If you want to be great at something you have to practice.
Teach deliberate practice with focus. If your not doing this your wasting your time. Don't just perform a task deliberately, practice them. Practice for the next job you want to have. Put an hour into what you want to excel at. Look at how you are spending your time. Convert the doing, into practice.
Take time to reflect on the day and look at what could have been done better. Take a few minutes and look at how well you are doing. Have a regular schedule for critiquing yourself. Review everyday at the end of the night. How can you improve? This is how a coach does with a player. Have focus like a doctor, that you are focusing on your practice.
Challenge yourself to stretch yourself. Speed up in stages gradually putting on the pressure. Apply gradient stress to the situation. Know your levels and know your limits (breaking point). Hope is good with action. You have to have moral and physical courage. Do your best in the present. Find out where you are. If your feeling pressure remember organized pressure. Embrace everything where it stands.
Do a brain gym. Plan ahead and set goals. Do a good job of setting up habits. Remember a time when you felt awkward and make a change. Get uncomfortable. Did you work through and maintain that change for at least a month? People tend to go back to where they are comfortable. Practice with being happy with the life I have. Starting the process of what you truly want and make those changes in your life. People hold on to out of date versions of our self-image, old hurts and resentments, limiting beliefs about our abilities to succeed and change. That feeling of being a baby inside. The kicking and screaming response has to be let go of. The internal stomach wrenching struggle against change.
The brain can be reshaped, because of neuroplasticity . The brain can be molded. When you learn something or do something new your brain grows new connections. It physically changes to deal with the new task you give it. An optimal way to encourage those new connections is making a small changes first. Adopt a new way of doing things for 30 days. Each year you could permanently change at least 12 aspects of your life.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other and pretty soon you will end up where you want to be. Consistently doing those things that you know will get you where you want to go. Tackle habit one by one for thirty days at a time. Focus on how great it will be when you succeed. Make your negative habits into positive ones. Your beliefs have the power to help you achieve your goals or block your progress. The key is the power of yet. (Example My time is not up yet). If you can change your mind; you can change your body. You have to visually see yourself. If the mind changes the body; the body must change the mind to. There has to be a commitment to stick to the process. Sometimes people look at their slip not as a disaster but as something that strengthened their commitment. Stop falling and having slips. Know when to push and when to rest. Adopting a rhythmic approach to work and rest. The greatest athletes need recovery time too.
An approach to try is a daily 90 minute sessions applied to work. A 30 minute nap after lunch. The body has natural rhythms that cycle higher and lower alertness. Take 10 minute breaks. Olympians go from a hot pool to a cool pool. Having rest breaks for 10 minutes let you recover. The breaks give you the advantage to work smarter. There are researchers that call this time, incubation time. A rest in the middle of the morning. One in the middle of the afternoon. On a yearly scope, a week vacation. You have to give your body time to recharge.
The best way to get motivated is to get up and do something. Just get started by taking action. Build up momentum and stay in motion. Action is a strong motivator. Think about your goals and choose actions. Focusing on a task that will lead to the goal. Why are you doing what you are doing and why are you spending your time doing those things. What obstacles are preventing you from stepping up to the new level.
Second, accept the helping hand to guide you up. The only way to get to your goal is one step at a time. Plan ahead and do your best in the present. Improving on improvement. It is normal for change to feel uncomfortable or difficult even when the change is positive. Let go of our old ideas and ways of doing things. Your holding on to something and need to let it go. Realize to move forward in life you have to let go of the old idea of you. Letting go of the idea that my entire identity and value depended on my achievements.
When you let go, your whole future will open up in front of you. Then you will be able to embrace that new reality. Having to let go of pride. I have learned that my beliefs, my thoughts, have the power to achieve my goals. Visualize achieving your goal. To have energy and resources I need to improve day by day. Have cycled periods of time concentrated effort and planned recovery. You will do better when the sun comes up. Perfection is unachievable; because you can't do it all, or learn it all in one 24 hour day. Everyday being a little bit better than yesterday is achievable. The time frame your using over the course of the day, a month or a year. Are you judging your actions by the way you do something or judging the results of that action? What areas in your life can you write down to make 1% improvements?
