100% Commitment is Easier Than 98%

Chris Hoy knew what committment was. He'd train on a stationary bike to develop his power, so hard that it hurt.

'It's the worst pain imaginable,' he says. 'You feel as if you are dying. You're physically sick and you writhe around on a mat in a world of pain until you can form a foetal position, which you stay in for 15 minutes thinking you can't go on.' (Daily Mail 21.04.12)

This is hard. This is commitment. It was all or nothing.

And nothing is so close to everything...

Having an option to quit and not do something means you might quit and not do something. Not giving yourself that option means you won't.

I'm not sure where this thinking originated but it came to me via Nic Brisbourne
, my Partner at Forward Partners, blogging at TheEquityKicker.

He said to me, "100% commitment is easier than 98%".

Nic blogs every work day and has done so for years. He's got a crazy workload and yet he still makes time to blog. When we talked about it he explained that committing 100% is easier than 98%. The 2% difference is the chance you give yourself to opt out.

If we fail to meet our commitments, it's because we either take on too many commitments or because we give ourselves the option of 98% being good enough. 98% becomes 96% becomes 90% and soon we haven't come close to what we wanted to achieve.

I've now learnt to commit carefully but to commit fully.

---

Further reading: Have a New Year’s Resolution? Make that a 100% Commitment by Zeynep Ton