The 1% Rule: How to Fall in Love with the Process and Achieve Your Wildest Dreams

by Tommy Baker

PERSISTENCE, DEFINED.

“Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals. Self-control is the voluntary regulation of behavioral, emotional, and attentional impulses in the presence of momentarily gratifying temptations or diversions. Grit can be simply defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”

These are the defining moments when you truly discover who you are. While intense, challenging, and tough, grit and persistence are beautiful and will give your journey meaning.

CULTIVATING PERSISTENCE

Persistence is created by choosing it time and time again. Every single day, we will experience countless moments of doubt and fluctuations in our physical, mental, and emotional energy, all of which can stop us in our tracks. The cultivation of persistence requires us to detach from the feelings of the moment. Specifically, it’s about executing, regardless of what we’re feeling—all the time.

The following four essentials are crucial for cultivating your persistence:

Knowing exactly where you...

This intense clarity—with a deeply rooted why that gets me emotional—allows me to endure. It takes a massive goal and puts me in the driver’s seat as I become obsessed with the process and nothing else.

In your life, once you have massive clarity on where you’re headed, combined with a deep and powerful why, you’ll begin to unlock the persistence and grit required to achieve all of your wildest dreams.

Understanding the inherent challenges.

Reframing challenges as opportunities to grow and doubling down on your vision is crucial to flexing the muscle of persistence.

III: Detaching from your feelings.

Many times, experiencing doubt and resistance means we’re growing, stretching, or in the process of becoming.

Feelings are important, but if we let them control our ability to execute and follow through on our goals, we are held hostage and lose our own self-reliance. The moment you learn to execute regardless of how you’re feeling, everything changes.

IV: Setting ablaze your deeper desire.

Without a burning desire, or a deeply rooted why, we’ll lack persistence. If you find yourself unclear about where you’re headed, that’s where your focus must lie.

HAVE A CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER

When we truly, deeply, and authentically desire our visions, we will persist in the face of extraordinary challenges.

We won’t require external motivation; we’ll be so driven from every cell of our body that we will simply move forward because we don’t know any other way.

You have no excuses. Your time is this moment because it’s all we will ever have. Treat it as if it’s life or death, because it is.

COMPLACENCY KILLS PERSISTENCE

Complacency.

Complacency is the moment we get comfortable and decide it’s good enough. It’s the moment we settle and stop growing and challenging ourselves.

Maximum growth happens at the intersection of support and challenge.

Enthusiasm has started to wane.

Enthusiasm is a creative energy unlike any other. Once you start slipping into complacency, you’ll notice your enthusiasm wane. Eventually, it’ll turn into boredom—or worse, apathy.

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detail starts your day off with accomplishment.

If you can’t build the muscle of persistence during low-stakes situations, it’ll become incredibly difficult to show up when the stakes are high.

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.”

Luckily, creating micro-challenges as part of your daily routine is deeply imbedded in the ethos of the 1% Rule. You’re going to be crafting a game plan to challenge yourself at least once a day. You’ll flex the challenge muscle. This sets the tone for the rest of your experience.

YOUR...