What can you achieve with a 1% change?
As soon as you set a goal you have created a destination you want to reach. When you set the destination, you create a gap, a gap between where you are now and where you’re going. You must, of course, bridge or fill the gap.
If the gap is small and what it takes to bridge the gap is something we’re pretty familiar with, then it’s easy to bridge that gap and obtain that goal.
But what if, in order to move ahead, you need to learn how to do something new? Or what if the gap is big? A big gap to your destination or the need to learn something new can stop people before they even get started. The destination suddenly looks unachievable. In addition, setting a big life changing goal that calls for several big changes all at once, often makes us very uncomfortable and we often just won’t do what makes us that uncomfortable.
So, what happens when we set a goal to double (or triple) our revenue this year? BIG GAP happens. We’re not sure what to do or how to do it.
Answer: break the goal down into chunks – 1% chunks.
If your annual revenue is $1,000,000 now, doubling that means an additional $1M in sales. Big Gap! If that causes dizziness and the ‘yeah, how?’ response, then change the 100% goal into the 1% goal. So, 1% of that goal is only $10,000. A whole year is 260 working days so, 1% of that goal is 3 days. If your average sale is $3,400 you only need to make one more sale a day. If your salesperson is making one sale a day, together you can pretty easily figure out how to make 2 sales per day.
If you find your gap is 1,000 feet long, simply break it down into 1% chunks those steps are only 10 feet each. Getting 10 foot closer is easy.
A 1% change in the right direction, maintained continuously will build on itself. When you do something you gain confidence and reinforce the notion that you can make things happen. That’s exactly how the thousands of miles of railroads and the highways that connect the East coast to the West coast were built. It’s also how the Chunnel, or any diamond mine were built. The best way to bridge any destination with a Big Gap is 1% at a time.