The Last 5 Percent Part II

In my last post, I talked about the last 5 percent of any goals being the hardest; where resistance kicks in and instead of going vertical and finishing, most of us go horizontal and start something new before we get the benefit.

In the past month, as part of a group of about 40 men, all of whom made last 5% commitments on following through on not only on each of our intensive roles in this past weekends New Warrior Training Adventure for 20 new men going through the experience, but also in our lives; what an experience it has been.I have never resolved so many issues in my life in any one given month, or accomplished as much. All because of “completing” those activities that I am involved in. It feel normal right now to complete and that is a beautiful thing.

In a world in formation, where new things grab our attention constantly, you know how easy it is to get side tracked.

Tom Terwilliger’s, 7 Rules of a Achievement have been a virtual guidance system for drilling down to the key steps one needs to take achieve a goal, yet no goal will be achieved still if we don’t follow through on the last 5%.

Now the reality is, the idea of the last 5% can really be an illusion. On projects where I thought I was much further along I wasn’t and some where 1 % away from being complete but I didn’t know that because I wasn’t paying attention to where I was in the process. See part three of Tom’s Training: Do You Have Any Clue Where You Are Right Now?

There were some aspects of my business that just weren’t getting focus and I had more than 50% of the process ahead. Reminds me of Seth Godin’s book The DIP, which talked about how hard it can be to gauge the distance between here and there. That last 5% may be a big 5%, and this is why knowing how to gauge where you are in the process is so key. You may think you are right there, but may still be miles a way on the road to getting there.

Now here’s a gem, I recently discovered:

The last 5 percent does not mean that you only have five percent left and then you’re done. It very often means that you have the most difficult part left of the next set of actions that you need to take to move forward down the road you are on. Believe me, there will likely be 5% more waiting for you.

No sooner did we complete the goal of a successful New Warrior Training this past weekend, did we plan the next and have our sites on the next set of tasks. The last 5 percent will play itself out over and over again.

The reason why the next 5% so hard in my estimation, particularly when you are well into a project, is that once complete, and the new result shows up, you are in a new reality. As I learned from Neal Donald Walsh, author of the book called “Conversations with God“, “everyone likes to talk about heaven”, but no one wants to get there. Right here is what we know. That last 5% changes everything.

It may also be that to complete the last 5% of any endeavor, you truly need to know what you are doing. Like an Olympic sprinter seeking to shave those last few tenths of a second off her time in a 100 meter run, the last 5 % of any endeavor requires a lot of work or at the very least the readiness for your world to change and a new set of responsibilities to emerge.

I realize that I am going through that right now. .

How about you?

Step Up Your Game,

John Allen Mollenhauer “JAM”

PS, this month, and next I’m going to be spending allot of time blogging about achieving goals as I work through some of my own issues and prepare for a live event with Tom Terwilliger here at The Lifestyle Coaching Center on June  2nd.  I’ll keep you posted.

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