I was reviewing YouTube videos the other day and came across a video titled, The 100 Percent Rule That Will Change Your Life. I remembered that I had listened to this video one day while I was working out. I tend to listen to YouTube or other instructional videos while I work out and if I like them, I add them to a review folder on YouTube. Then once a week, I go through my review folder and re-watch the videos at a faster speed pulling out the brilliant nuggets of information.
Here are the brilliant nuggets of information that can help you shape a healthier, happier you…
What is the 100 Percent Rule?
This rule is pretty simple. All you have to do is commit 100% to the things you find important in your life. You may be thinking, “Oh, I already do that.” But do you really? For example, if you have committed to working out three times a week every week, do you always do it? Well, you don’t have to be perfect, because life happens, but do you regularly get three times a week in? If not, you may not be 100% committed.
“99 percent is hard. 100 percent is easy.”
This is actually extremely true. What do I mean? Think about it. Imagine you’ve committed 99% to working out three times a week. Which pretty much means you will do it the majority of the time, but a very small percent of the time you won’t. How do you decide on that very small percent of the time? How do you decide when to work out and when not? Do you say to yourself, “I haven’t missed a workout in 3 weeks, I can miss one today.” How many workouts do you have to hit in order to reach your commitment? The mathematical number is 99. You have to work out 99 times before you can miss one.
Now, if you’re committed 100%, wholeheartedly, then there is no decision. You MUST work out those three days a week. If you have to miss a workout on a day you typically work out, you make it up on another day that week. You’re committed 100% to it, so there isn’t any decision making or thinking around what you have to do. You just do it. Hmmm…maybe Nike was on to something.
Can you see how much simpler being 100% committed is rather than 99%?
A Recent Example From My Life
I read the following line from my journal each day, “Limit poor food choices to parties and Sundays.” That’s a pretty simple one to follow. I know I’m the 5and2Guy and usually limit my poor food choices to Saturday and Sunday, but I’m trying to up my game this year and limit those poor choices to parties and Sundays.
Well, there aren’t a whole lot of parties right now during COVID, so I’m limiting to Sundays. Well, at least that’s what I said I would do. But as I hit my weight goals and was feeling pretty good, I wasn’t 100% committed to my words. I began eating ice cream and too many sweets on Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays. I mean, “I worked out 5x this week. I kept to my diet. I hit my goals. I should be able to celebrate.” But it doesn’t take too long before making this choice becomes a bad habit. And it did. I put a little weight back on, not much, but enough to show my failure.
But it wasn’t until I reviewed that YouTube video on the 100 Percent Rule that I woke up. So, I committed, 100% wholeheartedly, to limiting poor food choices to parties and Sundays. This past weekend was my first weekend being 100% committed. And it worked. I stuck to what I said I would do and it was easy. There was no decision to be made. I had already made up my mind…100%!!!
The Takeaway
If you want to be successful at something, you can increase your odds dramatically if you use the 100 Percent Rule. You need to commit 100% to your cause if you want to see it through and remove the battle in your head around whether you need to do something or not. This allows you to make the decision one time, to be 100% committed, rather than only being 99% committed or less, and having to have that mental battle and decision on whether this is the 1% or whatever percentage time you’re not going to keep to your word.
If you make the decision to commit, 100% wholeheartedly, to something, then you never have to make that decision again. You don’t have to think about it anymore. You don’t have to waste any more precious time or energy re-hashing something you’ve already decided on. This is what makes the 100 Percent Rule one of the best decision you make in life. Not only for your fitness goals but for all areas of you life.
Here’s the video I reviewed that helped me get back on track: