The Last 5 Percent

I sit here today, one week away from finishing one of the toughest goals I have ever pulled off. No, it’s not the creation of a company, or a product. It’s completing the weekend coordination of 40 staff and 20 new men for a Mankind Project New Warrior Training.

Now I already have an intense schedule, and this goal, has had me up against my edge. A mentor of mine,  David Dieda, talks about this concept in his book The Way of the Superior Man. About living just at your edge, never more, but to know where your edge is and be honest about it.

I am at my edge at this moment and it is during these moments that I understand the power and intensity of the last 5 % of achieving any goal. Thanks to Tom Terwilliger, I’ve had some major inspiration this week as I complete this goal without getting side tracked.

King Mott, our leader in The Mankind Project, a month ago, introduced me to this concept called the last 5 percent stating that the last 5% of any endeavor I am involved in will be the hardest, and that studies and statistics show that most people do not complete the last 5% of any project as it calls up all kinds of resistance. Sherry Lowry explains the last 5% in her article “Don’t Panic When Your Goal is In Reach“.

I noticed that in the past that panic is something I did regularly when I faced the last 5% of any project. I would panic when the last 5 Percent of a project would role around and would find myself making changes or moving onto something else with some clever little rationale for why I couldn’t finish. I am telling on myself here, but today that story is changing in a big way because you don’t get the benefits of achieving a goal, if you don’t complete the last 5%.

All month this month I am going to talk about achieving your goals, as I complete some of mine.
I am really feeling the last 5% of achieving certain goals this week, as I am nervous and part of me wants to retreat and not be fully engaged. To do so, means to feel the present situation of coordinating this upcoming weekend fully. That’s what I want, but the emotions are intense.

I realize that 5% actions are all around me, and it’s only when I complete that 5% do I have a sense of accomplishment and achievement and relief. If I don’t I feel the opposite and overwhelm. So that’s what I’m doing this week. As Garth Brook Says “I’m living inside the fire”.

Rule # 4 from Tom Terwilliger’s book The 7 Rules of Achievement is helping here.

Filed Under: achieve your goals

Tags: David Dieda, Sherry Lowry, The 7 Rules of Achievment, The Mankind Project, Tom Terwilliger