The Quest for 1%: Debriefing March 2012

My fellow riskologists,

It’s taken a long time for me to realize it, but focus is a good thing. I used to try to do many things at once, but I’m slowly learning that I’m much more effective when I pick one thing and stick to it until it’s done before moving on.

For the last two months, I’ve really pared down the number of things I’m working on at any one time, and I’m a lot happier because of it. And, funny enough, more is getting done.

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Welcome to the 1% Club Update for March, 2012. This is where I discuss the strategies I use as I take on the biggest challenges of my life.

If you’re new here, you may want to get familiar with the 1% Club first and read a few previous updates to see how things have progressed over time.

Thanks for being here. I hope you’re able to take some of the lessons I’ve learned and apply them to your own big challenges.

The Difference Between Success and Failure: Perseverance

It’s easy to take on big challenges and make progress towards your goals when everything in life is going according to plan. What really separates success from failure is how you carry on when life gets hard.

Without going into detail, I suffered a serious setback in my personal life last month and truly found out what it feels like to be completely without hope or motivation.

These days, between marathon prep and preparing to launch a new business project, I rarely have the time to waste a single day, but after this setback, I sat for nearly a week doing nothing at all. I was mad. I was shocked. I felt sorry for myself. And, of course, I let the situation get the best of me.

But if you’re like me, then you know that sitting around gets boring and irritating quickly. What I slowly realized during this week was that I don’t get to control the things that happen to me in life; I only get to control how I react to them.

Of course you already know this, but it’s easy to forget when you’re in the middle of a difficult situation.

When I realized what I was doing to myself, I made the decision to “just be happy.” And guess what? It worked. I’m back at it and better than ever.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy to make that decision—it’s much easier to sit around feeling sorry for yourself—but the moment I made it, things changed for the better.

If you find yourself in a jam you never expected to find yourself in, take a deep breath and remember that everything’s going to be okay, whatever okay turns out to be.

If you’re working on something important in your life, you’re probably going to run into problems like this along the way. If you want to get through them, you have to stop trying to control everything that happens to you and instead focus on how you react to it.

In my opinion, that’s how you persevere.

Six Weeks to The Great Wall

Training for The Great Wall Marathon started in earnest this month, and I’m happy to report that it’s gotten off to a “great” start. The motivation problem last month threatened to derail things, but I have a secret trick up my sleeve that I use when problems like this come up:

Run anyway.

For the last three and a half years, I’ve run three days a week, every single week, regardless of the weather, how motivated I was, or any other issue. The only thing that’s stopped me is physical illness.

By now, putting my shoes on and getting out the door is instinctual. When something bad happens, there’s no contemplation, no measuring circumstances, no excuses. Just running.

And I don’t keep a complicated schedule. I start running, and when I get tired, I stop. Or, if I’m feeling extra masochistic, I keep going!

While everyone else is busy picking out the right nutritional supplement or looking at the weather report, I’m just running.

Maybe this won’t work for everyone, but it works incredibly well for me, and I recommend giving it a try, whatever it is you’re pursuing. The beauty of this strategy is that once you have a bit of a record going, the harder you want to work to keep it.

This is powerful. After three and a half years, I’m not about to give up—I want to see how far I can take this. You might experience the same feelings if you try it, too.

To date, I’ve completed 3 of 7 worldwide marathons.

Riskology.co Growing Again

Finally, a quick update on the state of you—my fellow riskologists. I started adding this section last month because it seems like many of you are building your own little communities, and it could be helpful to talk about how Riskology.co is growing and what’s influencing it.

This month, readership (subscribers) grew by about 1%. That sounds low, but it’s actually quite normal. The way this site tends to grow is very slowly and modestly with short bouts of intense expansion. For instance, we grew almost 20% last month.

After two years, I feel pretty comfortable saying that I know exactly what to do to grow Riskology.co whenever I want to, and it basically comes down to this:

To experience incredible growth, do something incredible.

Sometimes easier said than done, but the rule holds true. In months where most of what I do is average, I get average results. And when I work harder or smarter and do something truly interesting or original, growth picks up substantially.

I can’t be incredible all the time—there is no high without low—so I don’t mind months of slower growth here or there, but when it’s been slow for too long, I now know that it’s nobody’s fault but my own. Time to take a risk and do something more interesting.

If you want your own incredible results, I recommend the same solution.

AR Reader Answers: Your Most Memorable Adventure

Now that we have an official spot here for Riskologist Field Reports, I think we’ll retire this section of the update. But before we do, I want to feature our lone reader last month who answered my call to describe your most memorable adventure.

Kimberly wrote a great piece about her adventure at a silent nun retreat. The lessons she learned in three days of complete silence are worth a read.

Thanks Kimberly!

That’s all for this month, friend. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, I hope it’s bringing you a lot of happiness. And remember that, in almost every case, the difference between success and failure is a matter of effort.

See you next month,

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Image by: jercraigs