Ever heard the expression giving 110 percent effort?
I have so many times to the point where I have wanted to heave, but then I started to really put some thought into it.
First off, scientifically there isn’t such a thing as 110 percent! That’s because 100 percent is perfect, it is the best you, or anyone, or anything can attain, and that is pretty much impossible to achieve let alone maintain. However for argument sake, we’ll say there is actually 110 percent.
Whenever I hear someone give a speech about giving 110% effort in whatever it is you do, I just wonder how much help they are actually giving me. You should wonder, too!
What I mean by this is the following, let’s say that someone actually does give 110%. How long do you think that person will be able to sustain it? A day, a few days, a few weeks, maybe even a full month? The point is 110 percent is not sustainable over time for you or for anyone. In fact, this is most likely a leading cause for burnout and failure.
Take a car for example, let’s say it has a top end speed of 120 mph. If you put the accelerator pedal to the floor and the car reaches a speed of 120 miles per hour, how long do you think the car will maintain that speed? How long will that car hold together? What do you think will go first; the engine, drive-train, maybe it will run out of gas or overheat? This illustration obviously shows that a car or anything else cannot maintain 100% effort all the time.
Same goes for us; how far do you think you can go if you applied 110% effort all the time? A day? A week? Maybe a whole month before you would stop? That is my point! You would eventually wear out and quit. Most people would quit. Maybe a good reason why 95% of people online fail because they burn themselves out too soon.
A better approach would be to have 100% commitment and to apply your best effort consistently even if it’s only 75%, that way you would avoid burnout and maintain your enthusiasm.
Or be consistent say 90% of the time, that way you would last a much longer in the long run. In fact it would be better to say have 100% commitment which is admirable even desirable which is an element to success. But when it comes to effort, it is a different matter altogether.
I’m going to give you a real life example that actually happened during the time the South Pole was being discovered. Two different teams of explorers arrive approximately at the same time. But each team had a different approach. One team completely failed and all members died, while the other team succeeded and all made it back home.
What was the difference between these two teams? Both teams had top-notch scientists in the same field and all members were healthy and physically fit. In fact, the first team to arrive had a head start by several days.
The first team that started out giving 110% effort at the beginning and quickly became tired. They ended up taking too much time to recover and then tried to make up for lost time pushing themselves to exhaustion once again by over doing it. In turn, that resulted in them becoming tired and having to rest all over again. This happened over and over again until the team finally collapsed from exhaustion and hypothermia. They never did reach the pole.
However, the second team set out on a course of consistency. Each day they would travel 20 miles regardless of the conditions. On the days it was good the 20 miles was easy to do in the team members have plenty of time to recover. On the days that were bad they pushed themselves to do 20 miles and were able to recover. Even though they started out several days after the first team, they reached the South Pole first. They also were the ones to make it home.
The moral of story is consistency beats out maximum effort. So the next time you hear someone say to put 110% effort into something run away quickly because it will not help you. Staying consistent day after day will more likely help you become successful. 🙂
