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. As we revealed in chapter 1, these common beliefs associated with success are tattooed into our hearts and minds, and often hold us back.
This happens for several reasons, including having false expectations, having a distorted sense of reality, or using failure as proof that you’re not worthy of accomplishing your goals in the first place.
However, there’s one, undeniable motivational force unlike any other:
Progress—even the 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.
In 2011, Harvard Business Review (Amabile and Kramer, 2011) performed an extensive study on motivation in the workforce and what truly makes people tick.
Researchers concluded:
“Through exhaustive analysis of diaries kept by knowledge workers, we discovered the progress principle: Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. And the more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. Whether they are trying to solve a major scientific mystery or simply produce a high-quality product or service, everyday progress—even a small win—can make all the difference in how they feel and perform.”
This can’t be overstated. It is the basis of the ethos behind the 1% Rule.
The 1% Rule stems from this principle and combines it with the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. This philosophy is about continuous improvement over the long haul.
These two come together to create undeniable daily micro-progress. When combined with consistency and time, the compound effect takes over and we not only achieve the most audacious of goals, we go above and beyond our wildest dreams.
The 1% Rule:
1% progress + daily application (consistency) + persistence (focus) + time (endurance) = success.
During the rest of this chapter, we’ll be breaking down the main components of this rule, seeing the beauty of its simplicity, and learning how to harness it. You’ll see your goals and aspirations through a new perspective designed to inspire and empower. Most importantly, you’ll discover why progress is crucial to your mindset and your belief that you can achieve anything you’ve ever wanted.
I was sitting at a restaurant inside of a nondescript mall in Houston, Texas, knee-deep in a seminar with one of my mentors, Dr. John Demartini. We’d spent six days, up to sixteen hours a day, on intense work, lectures, and learning about the deep-rooted philosophies of life.
I was spent. My brain hurt from the overload of inputs, and my body was breaking down from the inactivity. I was having a conversation with others at the seminar, when one of them said that after this, he was headed to another event, followed immediately by another immersive one.
Whoa, I thought. I couldn’t fathom another event because I needed to execute on what I’d learned.
That’s when I discovered there were people using personal development and seminars as an escape, not as a tool to execute and create progress in their life. While I love events and believe they should be a staple for our path of growth, I was stunned to discover what I call “personal development program hoppers.”
However, I was also part of the problem. I’d go to these events, achieve massive clarity, and stay up until three in the morning full of zest. I’d type out an entire grand plan on the plane home.
Then I’d wake up a few weeks later without any tangible sign of progress. Sure, my mindset had been sharpened, but the inspiration and energy had waned, and I didn’t have much to show for it. This pattern would repeat for years.
Each time, I’d make a vow: this time, it’s going to be different. After years of this on-again, off-again cycle, I began to notice a common trend:
When I focused on small daily actions tied to the larger vision, I felt invigorated and inspired, and I moved the needle.
When I focused on the end result and the massive vision I’d created, I felt depleted and uninspired, and suffered from paralysis by analysis.
I decided to reverse engineer the vision I had created, bringing it down to the smallest common denominator. It’d have to be so tiny, it’d be impossible not to move the needle. The next day, I’d do the same thing—over and over and over again.
For the first time in years, I started to see the real-world, incredible results everyone at these seminars promised. At the time, I was running a fitness business and we more than doubled our revenue in only a few months. I hired my first employee and committed to a ten-day trip to Costa Rica in order to force myself to systemize and automate my business. I was living my purpose and passion, and turning all the information and wisdom from mentors and coaches into real-world results based on daily progress, or micro-wins.
This was the lightbulb moment. I started to recognize the power of the 1% Rule and applied it to every area of my life. I applied it to hundreds of clients. It worked better than I could have ever predicted. The results were astounding. They became the core themes of the book you’re reading now.
Fast-forward a half decade later, and I’m still using the 1% Rule every day. I’ve seen it work firsthand on tens of thousands of people. These people, much like me, were stuck and spinning their wheels prior to using it.
They’d consumed all the content on success, achievement, and mindset, yet much like me in that mall in Houston, had few results to show for it. Sure, they could recite why affirmations were powerful and why most people were failing at their goals, including themselves. They could tell you why accountability is crucial and that you shouldn’t get overwhelmed with the how.
Yet, their life wasn’t a living proof of the principles. Their results were minimal. It was frustrating for them to have the awareness and understand the concepts logically, yet be unable to create them in their lives.
It’s the guy or gal who knows everything about fitness and nutrition, yet can’t seem to get their own act together.
I started to look at the 1% Rule as less of a concept and more of a science.
It started with a simple question:
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?
Simple: I’d experience a 365% increase across my life. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty awesome. What would a 365% increase across all areas of your life look like?
If you said amazing, you’d be right. However, this barely scratches the surface. Since life is not linear, I had to take into account the power of time, compounding, and exponential growth. Compounding applies in various contexts and transforms incremental growth to exponential growth.
The difference between incremental and exponential is the difference between going from 1% to 2% and growing tenfold. That’s the moment where the 1% Rule is truly unleashed. If you’re consistent long enough and persist through obstacles, you’re left with the beautiful force of compounding.
The 1% Rule was officially born:
1% progress + daily application (consistency) + persistence (focus) + time (endurance) = success.
This universal force creates exponential growth designed to transcend space and time. It allows us to achieve things we never thought possible. Furthermore, it collapses time and allows us to pierce right through it.
Classic texts like The Slight Edge (Olsen, 2013) and The Compound Effect (Hardy, 2012) detail this brilliantly. While you may notice similarities in philosophy, the 1% Rule differentiates itself by transforming a powerful theory into a system of execution and integration.
Those books are classics, there is no doubt. But I found that people really needed a strategic game plan to incorporate the principles and reverse engineer success, all using a practical daily formula.
What I discovered next blew the lid off my reality.
If we simply move the needle forward in our lives every day by 1%, we’d get to 365% improvement over the course of a year—3.65X better.
This is fantastic but doesn’t take into account the power of compounding.
If we move the needle forward in our lives every day by 1% and include enough consistency, persistence, and time, we have the potential of a 3,700% increase over the year.
Read that again:
Harnessing the power of the 1% Rule, at worst you’re going to create an improvement of 3.65X, but you could potentially create up to 3,700%, or 37X more.
Imagine waking up with physical vitality, energy, stamina, strength, and aesthetics 37X better than the year prior.
Imagine waking up in your marriage or relationship and your love, passion, connection, and growth is 37X better than the year prior.
Imagine waking up in your business, and your income, impact, influence, and bank account are 37X better than the year prior.
Imagine waking up in your spiritual connection to your higher self, deeper and more present, fulfilled and on fire to the tune of 37X deeper than the year before.
The truth is, you probably can’t imagine this right now. It’s too big, bold, and intense. Thirty-seven times better than where you are today is a completely different reality where you’re on fire in every area of life. You’re drenched in achievement and fulfillment. People around you keep asking you for the secret because you’re thriving, and they feel it every time they’re around you.
This is the magic moment, the realization of the power this rule has on your daily life. Even a 10X improvement from where you are today is a different universe.
Don’t take this lightly. Use it correctly, and you will never be the same.
I know what you’re thinking: this all sounds great, but now what? I get it. You’ve consumed your fair share of content centered on success, personal growth, and setting and achieving goals.
You may have even taken a weekend out to go to a seminar or live event, yet six months later you had little to show for it but a dent in your bank account. Each time this happens, you lose some of the critical self-trust required to turn the consumption of powerful information into transformational results.
Now you’re here and, conceptually, you get it. It sounds great on paper, right? Anywhere from 365% growth in all areas of life in one year, to 3,700% growth.
Where do we go from here? This is why I wrote The 1% Rule. I wanted to give people like you a proven system designed upon building an unbreakable foundation while harnessing the most powerful motivational force—progress.
What separates The 1% Rule from other texts on compounding is the system. This involves taking the concept down to the ground level and helping you craft a game plan to start now. While so many understand the inherent value of compounding, I felt there was a key integration piece missing.
Integration is one of my areas of focus and why my clients come back to me time and time again. Defined on my top-rated podcast, Resist Average Academy, integration is the process of going from knowing to doing and, ultimately, to being.
Any process of learning can be separated into three buckets: knowing, doing, and being. During this powerful process of integration, we take a concept from something we know to something we do, until, ultimately, it is who we are.
Integration is the missing link in most personal development, success, and mindset texts. Without it, we stay stuck in a world of intellectually knowing—but nothing else.
Here’s a breakdown of each bucket:
Knowing: an insight, a spark, a concept—simply a starting point. For example, you intellectually know how to launch a million-dollar business, drop on a wave to surf, or communicate with confidence.
Doing: the chasm of endless reps, practice, challenges, and adversity. This is where you put all your knowing into practice—and it’s hard. It’s supposed to be. Most people quit here before they get anywhere near the next phase.
Being: where the magic happens. You are no longer the logical concept. It’s who you are. It’s being on the wave and not thinking because you’ve transcended it. It’s the way you walk into a room or hold space in a conversation. This is where flow states happen.
Consider these as phases in your evolution as you grow and expand. If you’re accumulating endless information, you’re clearly in the knowing phase. If you’ve paired it with practice and daily reps, you’re in the doing phase. If you’ve put in the work for years and have become it, you’re in the being phase.
Now, these phases can exist simultaneously and will repeat themselves as you expand to new levels. Mastery, then, requires repeating the cycles of knowing, doing, and being as you deepen your skill.
While too “in the weeds” for the context of this book, we’ll be referring back to the process of integration. The goal is to supercharge this process while giving you a strategic blueprint for consistently living in a world of doing and being.
Along the way, we’ll be taking your grand vision and breaking it down to a level where you can’t help but execute.
While the 1% Rule is a powerful concept, it can easily stay as something that sounds great on paper. As I’ve mentioned earlier, that would be a failure on my part as an author if you weren’t able to harness this concept and create real-world tangible results you can both touch and feel.
It’s why I created a code around the 1% Rule, a set of unifying principles to help ensure you maximize every part of the concept. The code becomes the compass pointing to where you’re headed and allows you to stay grounded about why you’re doing it in the first place.
We’ll dig deeper into the Code in chapter 4, including:
- Fall in love with the process.
- Do it every single day.
- Celebrate your commitment.
- Track your metrics and data.
- Master your craft.
YOUR TURN
Setting an intention for anything we do here in life is crucial, and it’s your turn.
What has held you back from implementing powerful information you’ve consumed and what are you committed to doing differently using the 1% Rule?
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