This morning I’m sitting here enjoying quiet hurricane coffee and thinking about a 7 mile run. Thinking begets doing so it’s at the least a start. I was farting around on Instagram and found a post by Todd Herman, mental sports excellence guy who wrote a book I recently read called Alter Ego Effect. It’s a decent read if you’re into that stuff, but his post today was about something he calls the 10% rule. The notion that being the best at something isn’t you being 200-300% better, but being 10% better. Daily. 

I like that idea. So often we think we have to make these wholesale changes to get to where we want to go. This is a hell of a lot more tenable than “new year, new me”! Which we have proven lasts till January 17th at best. 

While I love the idea of 10% better. What the hell does it even mean? How can I even measure it?  I came up with this list of things I’ll be trying this week. What can you add a little extra to this week?  

1. Stretch/roll out my back daily. As an avid exerciser and coach, I always tell people to do this. Then never do it. 5-10 mins a day. 

2. I’ve been needing to create a daily workflow. Nothing earth shattering, just a “check this, do that” list for everything I have going on. Make it and commit to it for a week. Adjust as needed. 

3. Empower my employees to be 10% better at anything they choose ,work or otherwise. 

My tendency was to keep on adding to this list, but that’s where I always mess up. 10% is about adding little things for progressive growth, not going from having your  ass glued to your couch to running 10 miles the next day. 

To me 10% is less about quantifying than a bite sized steps you can do today no matter what Or it’s going a little further on a project and adding a small detail that sets your work apart. Or it’s helping make someone else a little better, which in turn, lifts you up.

Find 10% today. Carry it on until tomorrow. 

#hugsandhi5s