The 1% Rule: How to Fall in Love with the Process and Achieve Your Wildest Dreams
Written and Narrated By: Tommy Baker
Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
1% per day?!? Even I can do that
I wish Tommy Baker stuck more to the 1% part of The 1% Rule because he had me at the whole baby-steps thing. Still, upon listening to the whole book, I totally understand why he didn’t. The %1 Rule is about way more than doing things in small increments, it’s about how to survive the whole process of achieving whatever it is we’ve set as goals. Not only that—it’s about thriving the whole way through. Loving it? Okay, we’ll have to see about that.
Most of the audiobook, which Baker narrates himself with vigor and emphatic exclamations every now and then, is about what to do every step of the way. It’s about having absolute clarity of what your goal is/goals are; it’s about not only learning to overcome resistance but to embrace it with gratitude as discomfort means something matters, and it means that you’re being presented an opportunity for growth. Every time you feel resistance or fear, turn it into motivation and the gas you need to get going, get through.
I liked it when he put everything together and plugged in the 1%. It’s about looking down the line to where you want to be 90 days from now, determining the process of getting there, and choosing the micro-component you can address and achieve on a daily basis. And if that micro-component doesn’t leave you feeling a tad edgy, a bit like there are butterflies in your stomach, look at it again. It’s the small challenges we face every day that make us feel alive, that show us that we’re progressing, no matter how small. Plus, those little bits of progress start to add up, and there’s no better motivator than looking back and seeing how far you’ve actually come.
It took me two listens to “get” what Baker was going for, but that’s not because it was presented in a complex manner; it totally wasn’t. Rather, I have that whole monkey mind thing even on the best of occasions and, as Baker points out, we have anywhere from 50,000-60,000 thoughts running through our brains any given day (Try more like 80,000—I’m an overachiever when it comes to racing thoughts). Still, within the book, there’s a strategy for calming down, letting go, just being in the moment, so huzzah! There’s hope for me yet.
There are questions at the end of each chapter that are worth answering and mulling over. And there are resources he cites but which are not listed at the end of the audiobook (So maybe there’s a website? I dunno, but it’s rather disappointing that there’s no accompanying PDF to download that goes with the audiobook).
No matter what, there are many things gathered and discussed here like persistence, endurance, living as though your goals are a matter of life and death—all of which make this a pretty worthwhile listen. You can definitely find more in-depth books on each of those, but to have it all in one book, however briefly skimmed, and to add the 1% daily mini challenges made this a good audiobook to listen to.
Especially if you’re doing something like, say, trying to build a community of audiobook lovers through diligent reviews… :)
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