How far are you willing to go to get what you want?

What are you willing to do to make sure you make something amazing happen?

The answer, in my experience, is that you’re willing to do 90% of what’s necessary to get what you want. That’s 90% at most.

See, us humans like an easy life. I know I do. I love sitting in my chair with a mug of coffee, tapping away on an article, or chilling out in front of the latest episode of Heroes with a glass of wine.  Sometimes I’ll put the laptop away, switch off the TV and have a little nap.

When I first talk with a new client I see that they like an easy life too. Which is why I see them work hard enough to get what they want — hard enough to feel like they’ve given it their best shot, but only hard enough to miss the mark by a whisker.

Let’s say that in order to get something in life that means something to you – something you really, really, really want because of the opportunity for fun and fulfillment – that you have to follow a process. You start off without this thing in your life and then, after putting the effort in, you end up with it.

To achieve something special you have to go from 0% to 100%.

Trouble is, it’s bloody hard. Going after something important can have more ups and downs than Keith Richards’ medicine cabinet, and it can take what feels like a super-human effort to keep going.

That’s why most people stop at 90%. They stop when they think they’ve done everything they can think of and they stop when hit a subconscious barrier about what they can do.

This blog isn’t performing as I want it to…

I’ve written well over a hundred blog articles this year (some better than others, to be brutally honest), and many more guest articles that are scattered in the four corners of the Internet. But this blog isn’t working anywhere near the levels I want it to be, and the hard work and enthusiasm is tough to keep going when it seems like posts I’m proud of aren’t getting any eyes on them.

Sometimes I get disheartened with it, and wonder if I’ve taken it as far as I can.

If I hadn’t learned what I’ve learned I would probably have thrown in the towel by now, saying that I gave it my best shot.  But I know what’s going on, and I know that I haven’t even started yet.

I’ve learned to catch myself when I think I’ve done enough and to challenge that assumption. I know that I’ll always find something else I can do, some other way to engage with what I’m working on and some way of taking it another step closer to success.

I’m far from done and have an innate sense of confidence that I’m building something special, and that it will work.

And I have a couple of BIG ideas for the New Year that are both scary and exciting. That’s how I know I’m onto something, by pushing into that last 10%.

The last 10% is where the magic happens.

That last 10% makes all the difference in the world. It’s the difference between curing cancer and curing a leg of pork.

So when you think you’ve done all you can, keep on going. Find the confidence and courage to do one last thing and go that extra mile, because that’s where success lives.

- Follow up that contact one more time.
- Pick up the phone and make one more phone call.
- Approach one more friend for input.
- Find one more thing to raise the bar of quality.
- Tap into your old contacts for help one more time.
- Spend one more day polishing your work.
- Talk to one more person about what you can offer them.
- Call someone and thank them for their time.
- Write an email to someone you never thought you could email.
- Come up with one more crazy idea.
- Find one more new contact to have a useful conversation with.
- Do the thing that feels like one step too far.

Don’t stop at 90% and think you’ve done your best. You have what it takes to go the extra mile, and you deserve to win.