The 100 Hour Rule

By Jillian Broaddus and Chuck Cusumano

It’s not necessarily a “typical” time to focus on self-improvement. Most of our blogs on the topics of goal-setting and achieving your personal and professional accomplishments come around the same time millions of people are focused on New Year’s resolutions, mid-year assessments, or end-of-year planning.

However, there’s no “off season” for working toward your goals, and today’s blog might just come at the perfect time YOU need to make a switch in your daily habits!

Introducing: The Rule of 100!

You may have heard of Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule” — the adage that devoting 10,000 hours to your discipline of choice can make you a master.  However, 10,000 hours can seem daunting, and nearly insurmountable.  Plus, a goal of mastery isn’t necessarily the goal of the masses.

The 100 Hour Rule, instead, aims to break a similar principle down into a more manageable undertaking, with an alike but less extreme end result. Because, after all, it’s human nature to want to become better at SOMEthing.

While it’s not known who initially formulated the idea, it’s been talked about by the likes of Jesse Itzler and other motivational speakers. Here’s how it goes: Devoting 100 hours a year (only 18 minutes a day) in any discipline is said to make you better than 95% of the world in that discipline.

This is because repetitive practice at anything can literally change the pathways in our brain, improving our efficiency and our skill.

So, what can you spend 18 extra minutes per day doing to put yourself in the top 5%?

Here are our top three tips for implementing the 100 Hour Rule:

• Push your comfort zone — Becoming better than you’ve ever been requires pushing yourself to places you’ve never gone. Greatness is on the other side of what’s “comfortable,” and no matter your goal, it’ll require pushing the envelope to achieve it.

• Open yourself up to feedback — The best athletes use coaches. The best writers have editors. And the best achievers receive feedback on their journeys.

• With this feedback, pivot as necessary — What is working well as you get 10, 20, 50 hours into your process of improving? Is your “bar” for your comfort level now raised, and you need to practice differently to reach it? Always leave room for adjustments — including the time you’ll need to overcome setbacks and hurdles.

Let us know how we can help you reach your goals by contacting hello@thejoshuagroup.net. We’d love to help you do what you do… BETTER!