Maybe you are striving to improve your health by shaking exhaustion, disease or pain. Or perhaps you want to reach levels of high performance to achieve excellence in the pursuit of your choosing. On either end of this scale overwhelm is common. That’s where two percent can change everything. The Power of Two Percent has successfully lead to greatness time and time again.

Let’s go back to grade school. If my results are a dismal 30%, then I need to get my act together. I’m likely feeling pretty down and worried about failing badly. Often these feelings can be enough for people to give up.

But wait!

If I can improve by just two percent, I’ll now be performing at 32%.

Yeah, I know. That still sucks.

Relax.

Be patient.

Now, if I can improve another two percent, I’m at 34%. Still, not good.

But if I can do this day in day out for only one month, 30 days later my results are at 90% and I have 3X my performance!

That’s the power of two percent!

Small increments of improvement consistently applied lead to massive gains.

Ask any master, this is how they did it. Are you familiar with the 10,000-hours principle? It’s the journey of practicing for that amount of time while patiently and persistently adding small improvements to your skillset and knowledge until you are an expert, a master.

The Power of Two Percent to Heal

Having a disease, immobility or pain is not easy. It can remain an obstacle on a daily basis. While some of these struggles happen out of the blue, they, more often than not, occur over a long period of time.

Getting type 2 Diabetes, a limited range of motion or nagging pain is like the two percent principle backwards. It’s probably more like a one percent, or a fraction of a percent, effect in reality.

One day you can find yourself glaringly limited by something but you’ve likely been heading that way for years or even decades.

If it took you that long to get sick than it is reasonable to expect it to take a long time to get better.

Miraculously, humans, with all our fragility, are also very resilient and our bodies always want to be back to homeostasis. If we respect this drive, we can recover a lot faster than we got sick.

Unfortunately, we are often not patient. We want to get better NOW.

Many industries benefit from our quick-fix desires and our craving for convenience. 

This is seen with certain pharmaceuticals, drive-thru fast food, microwave dinners, fad diets, fitness boot camps, luxury vacations, social media interactions, and even some medical procedures. These rarely address underlying causes.

They tempt us with symptomatic relief and delay the daily effort that is required to really make lasting gains and create a better life.

Instead of reaching for a Tylenol for a headache, consider building in hydration and stress management practices in your life.

The power of two percent applied to hydration and deep, calm breathing on a daily basis will have far more success at eliminating headaches in the long run than taking acetaminophen. 

I was recently on Trent Childers podcast, Fight: Heart, Body, and Soul, where we discuss just this and other small, simple changes that can lead to great results and more energy.

Bottomline, figure out what small acts you can start today that will build to improve your health over the course of a month, a year and more.

You might be very surprised at how far you can take this.

I just started a really basic gymnastic mobility routine. I do it for 10-15 minutes a day.

When I started a week ago, I was quite surprised at my limitations, especially since I exercise regularly and have a really good knowledge of fitness.

My wrists, hamstrings, ankles and hips all declared themselves challenged in one way or another.

After a week or an hour and a half of really simple movements (no sweat, no huffing and puffing), I’ve already seen significant gains.

That’s the power of two percent in mobility and joint integrity.

This can be applied to weight loss, reduction in sugar consumption, rehabbing an injury, etc.

The Best in the World

Olympians, extreme athletes, world-class performers in entertainment, business, science and more, all know this. The difference between first and second, between leader and also-ran, is often a matter of two percent or less.

You might not be sick at all but if you want to be better at anything and eventually be great, which I believe every human does to some extent, employ the power of two percent.

Do it consistently and one day, you’ll be world-class.

Years ago, I went from guiding flat water canoe trips to whitewater. Due to my experience canoeing my employer at the time sent me to the highest level whitewater canoe instructors course.

It happened in April when the water was just above freezing. I had a wetsuit. All the experienced whitewater paddlers had drysuits.

They didn’t flip their canoes but I did. Time and time again, I flipped and swam in frigid water for 10 days straight. I failed. I was humbled.

I had one year to retest and so I set out almost daily for only 20 minutes if that’s all I could afford. Three months later, I retested. I won the most improved paddler award and become a highly capable instructor, whitewater guide and even won a competition.

That’s the power of two percent. 

Just Fine, Thanks

Maybe you’re thinking I’m not sick. I don’t want to be world-class. I’m fine.

Well, if you are truly satisfied with being fine and that’ll make you happy or fulfilled, all the power to you.

But maybe you are heading towards sickness due to the route of convenience. Perhaps, deep down inside you do want more.

Convenience is good but greatness doesn't come from convenience. Click To Tweet

Pick Something

Whether it’s writing, push-ups, eating veggies, ditching sugar, not complaining, meditating, going to bed earlier, just pick something.

Each day, apply the power of two percent to move your writing from 50 words to 100, from having two pops a day to one a day three weeks later and so on. 

Push forward. Make gains. Climb the mountain. Patiently. Slowly. Eventually.

It’s not a race, it’s your life.

Enjoy and Make Mistakes

The great thing about this kind of progress is it shouldn’t be too stressful, slip-ups aren’t catastrophic, and best of all, you can hopefully enjoy the process.

As you move from sick to well or fine to great, you can learn more about yourself, your body, you mind, your craft, and life.

You will probably have to fight impatience and avoid some of the temptations of convenience. It will be easier if you can appreciate the process and embrace being a student.

You might even have fun. After all, it’s only life. It’s not that serious.

By the time you are done, you will truly be world-class. You will the best expert in the world on the subject of you.

That’s the power of two percent.

https://soundcloud.com/trent-930746031/episode-28-keep-things-simple-with-brad-rudner

You can listen to my interview on Trent’s podcast here where we discuss lots of things including the power of simple changes made consistently.