SiteThe Five Percent Trick
In a guest post on the Zen Habits blog, Albert from UrbanMonk.net describes the 5% trick:
My favorite tool at this stage is the 5% statement, created by Nathaniel Branden, who is widely considered to be the father of the self-esteem movement. It works by allowing you to take steps in small increments. Trying to change completely overnight, as some might suggest, often creates fear, uncertainty, and resistance.
A 5% statement is split into 2 halves. Examples would be:
If I were to be 5% more responsible today, I would ___________.
If I were to be 5% less lazy today, I would ___________.The first part of the statement doesn’t have to change. But every morning when we wake up, we think of something that fills in blank, and then do it! As you can see, 5% is small and harmless enough to let us overcome our fears and procrastination. Being flexible enough to do different things everyday in pursuit of the same goal also keeps us from boredom and routine. Even better, it encourages us to think of new ideas to try (although we can simply do the same activity 5% more each time).
How could you use the 5% trick to reach your writing goals?
Thanks to Tim Hooker for linking to this post on his Facebook page! [lf]
3 Responses to “The Five Percent Trick”
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Nannette Croce
Said this on March 19th, 2009 at 8:34am:I volunteer teaching decision making skills to prison inmates. Similar to this approach we encourage them to break long-term goals into shorter term goals that make it easier to measure progress and enjoy a feeling of accomplishment. For writers, this would mean breaking “get my book published this year” into
Writer —thousand words per day for the next six months
Research one agent per week
I would make one suggestion on the 5% solution. We use the acronym “SAM”. That is, all goals should be specific, achievable, and measurable. In other words, instead of “I plan to lose weight or go on a diet.” “I want to loose 5 pounds by the end of this month.”
Valencia
Said this on March 19th, 2009 at 3:08pm:If I were five percent less lazy – I would submit five to ten query letters a week – or more.
Sunday Potpourri « Right Brain Planner
Said this on March 22nd, 2009 at 5:54pm:[...] The Renegade Writer Blog (awesome book!) and this one post is definitely something to ponder: The Five Percent Trick [...]