What is a ninety percent person
If we expect perfection, it’s a guarantee for failure. Why? Because we’re human and humans make mistakes and sometimes fail even with the best of intentions.
And the goal should not be perfection, but rather to wake up tomorrow and do better than today. Our goal for 2024 can be to be better than 2023.
The difference between us and someone more successful than us is that the successful person manages to be on point just a little bit more often than we are.
That’s it. It’s not a giant chasm of difference, but just enough that if it’s repeated each and every day, it’s going to add up to a lot over time.
You may make the right financial choice 90% of the time, but if you make the right choice 91% of the time, you’ll be just a bit more successful tomorrow.
So our goal isn’t perfection. Our goal is to move from the 90% person to the 91% person.
What does that mean?
- It means not beating ourselves up when we fail. Yes we didn’t do things right, but it only means we made a mistake.
- It means looking for the reasons for that mistake. Why did we make it? What conditions caused it to happen? Every mistake happens for a reason. The mistakes we make are correctable if we are willing to step back, study them, and find a better way of doing things.
- It means finding ways to not replicate that mistake the next time. We don’t need to mess up in the same way ever again. (How about just making new ones?!)
If we try to get 1% better each day…
- at our health,
- at our relationships and the way we treat people,
- at turning regret into gratitude…
then our 1% improvement compounds into an improved person.
Maybe I should take that walk one more time this week?
Maybe I could make a weekly gratitude list if a daily one seems too much?
Maybe I can take ten minutes to call that person I’ve been meaning to call?
What 1% improvement would make your life better?
