Step #4 in P4IR

A wise person was asked what they should do everyday to accomplish their dreams, their response — “only 10% of your daily actions affect the other 90%”.

Seems more like a non-response right?

How do you even measure 10% of your activities. How long should I do more than 10% to reach my goals? And how many percentage points over the 10 do I strive for (20%, 45%, 67.8932%)?

I needed hard and fast rules at the beginning of my journey too. But what this anonymous wise guy (gal, person, entity) said does make a ton of sense. Let’s review.

Six months ago, I was a whole different person from where I was just a month before that. After I found out my why for wanting my own business, I laid out some plans on how I was gonna accomplish my goals. Then, I figured out what my priorities needed to be. Now, all I had to do was pursue them. Right?

But what the so-called wise said started to sink in, only ten percent of what I do actually makes a difference. Honestly, I had a harsh reaction. It made me overwhelmed, and insecure, and deterred me further from even wanting to start pursuing really.

Anyone else feel like this?

I decided to take three deep breaths and pivot my thinking, a technique I totally made up — it’s been helping so far with sudden bouts of anxiety and imposter syndrome. For more about my journey read this article published on Thankless Pro.

I started to put things into perspective, I thought about a match. It only needs about ten percent of the entire thing to be ignited before 90% of it is affected.

‘What did I do today that wasn’t a 90% filler?’ Here’s my quick day-to-day:

• I get 10,000 steps everyday — rain or shine.
• I mostly eat pescatarian with raw fruits and veggies most days a week. (A day off every now and again keeps me sane.)
• I check off from my list of goals weekly.
• I read, meditate, and show gratitude as much as possible to add to my personal development.

More specifics you say? This is too broad and motivational-ly sounding; and you need cold, hard facts? Heard you!

• I set my alarms for my daily activities.
• I have a weekly check-in with my one big goal to accomplish.
• Every fourth Wednesday, I sit down and look over the past month and next month’s daily, weekly and month goals and compare that to the bigger picture of where I wanna be next year.
• My exercise looks like this: walk quickly enough to need a focused breath, turn that into a jog until I’m getting tired, and then I sprint hard until I have to stop — that’s when I begin my power walk again.

This is my pursuit. I’m not sure if it’s 10% of my day, each day, but it what I’ve got going on for me at the moment.

Some of you reading this may still say wait a minute, wait a minute — this sounds like way too much! Go back and read here how to prioritize your days. Everybody gets the same 24 hours in a day and I balance a full-time job, personal time, and connect with loved ones. You will be surprised how much time you actually have that you spend doing meaningless things.

Here’s a challenge.

For your next day off (no work, no plans — a truly lazy day) set an alarm every three hours to go off and write down on pen and paper or start typing an email draft to yourself that answers this question ‘What am I doing right now?’ Don’t write a paragraph. Don’t start judging yourself. Just write down — simply and in a few words. You will have roughly 5 alarms if you give yourself 8 hours to sleep and 1 hour misc.

Five alarms on your day off, turns into 6 hours free time once you factor in working 8 hours and add half an hour to get to and from work. That’s 2 three-hour alarms worth of time everyday.

These are clearly estimates. Good news is, I’ve tested this theory as a working stiff just like most of you 9to5ers. I’ve worked an hour from my job before — guess what I accomplished in those two hours (counting the ride there and back)? All my reading and blogging for the day while I was on the train. Once you see where you can add in an hour exercise and 15 mins reading, or half an hour blogging or taking two hours to work on your website — all of sudden there’s plenty of extra ‘time’ you can be filling with your focused pursuit.

Still trying to figure out where you land on the 10% progress — 90% fluff range? I’ll go even further and offer you my day-to-day schedule. An example work day may go something like this:

7am Rise, breakfast, and ready for work

8am — 9am Travel to work on train audiobook from real estate mogul or read a published script

9am — WORK — 5pm

5pm — 6pm Travel to work on train audiobook from real estate mogul or read a published script

6pm — 7pm Exercise while listening to a podcast and learn about marketing, SEO, business management, stock trading, options etc

7pm — 8pm Dinner

8pm — 9pm Website creation or Thought Leadership: Blog / Video

9pm — 10pm TV, Happy Hour, call a loved one, or - feed, pet and vent to my cat Jackson

10pm — 10:45 Write my screenplay

10:45pm-11pm gratitude and meditation/relaxation of the mind

11pm Sleepytime

Day off coming up? Amp up HARD!

9am Rise, breakfast

10am — 1pm Thought Leadership: Blogs/Videos/Posts Or Strategy-Building Or Website creation

1pm — 2pm Lunch and Nap

2pm — 5pm Family Time

5pm — 6pm Exercise while listening to a podcast and learn about marketing, SEO, business management, stock trading, options etc

6pm — 7pm Dinner

7pm — 9pm TV, Happy Hour, call a loved one, or feed, pet and vent to my cat Jackson

9pm — 10pm Edit Video

10pm — 10:45 Write my screenplay

10:45pm-11pm gratitude and meditation/relaxation of the mind

12am Sleepytime

Looks like a lot. But then the days start to amp-up very quickly and all of sudden the alarm goes off and it’s time to change tasks — and you’re so deep into creating and doing your thing…24 hours flies by every time doing what you love and getting closer to your dreams.

I may not know the exact percentage of how much progress I’m making. But, the reality is this -

• I won’t change my body shape or type overnight.
• I won’t wake up tomorrow and be a billionaire.
• I won’t be in a completely different place until I take the baby steps to get there.

Daily progress is key.

• Don’t get bogged down, remain human.
• Don’t forget to live trying to lead a different life.

Every single day is a chance to pursue something. Do a little more than you did yesterday and the effort will stack more and more and more.

Do the 10% that affects your 90% more often.

Go out and get it.

Pursue!

For more motivation, check out our resources page — find exactly what you need to push you through on your pursuit!