Imagine that you are shopping for life insurance to protect your family.

Your family is the most important thing in the world to you.

There is a one-million-dollar policy that costs $1,000 a year and covers your family every day of the year.

Another one-million-dollar policy only costs $500 a year but doesn’t cover your family on Fridays; if you were to die on a Friday the policy wouldn’t payout to your family.

Which one would you choose?

Sounds silly right?

Why would someone care enough to take out life insurance but leave themselves vulnerable on Fridays?

It may not be as important as life insurance for your family but only giving 99% effort towards your goal is the same thing.

Why would you care enough to put in 99% effort and by doing so, still leave yourself vulnerable in that 1% that is left undone?

Once it was all said and done, and my wrestling career was over and I had time to reflect, I realized a major part of wrestling was learning to give my all.

100% of it.

No holding back.

Learning to be all in, all the time.

No matter what.

Having no controllable vulnerabilities.

I was best able to do this by concentrating on realizing what was important and learning to control what I could control.

To not be affected by the constant noise of life.

Always being on an ongoing journey towards my vision.

When I did that, I was able to live with any outcome, because I knew I did everything I possibly could have done, there wasn’t one more thing that I could do.

And then and only then I could live with any results.

With no regret.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from the sport of wrestling is that the outcome isn’t the goal.

Your output is.

You can’t control the outcome.

You can control your output.

The goal is to give 100% of what you have and then you can live with any outcome.

100% effort kills regret.

If you give 99%, you will make yourself vulnerable.

More specifically, your mind will be vulnerable for life.

So, don’t hold back.

Don’t pace yourself.

Don’t save some for later.

Why in the world will you be willing to do 99% and then not be willing to do 1% more?

The 1% which brings truly knowing you did everything that you could, there wasn’t one more thing that you could have done.

1% for peace of mind.

Forever.

For every 1% that you hold back is a 1% that goes in your opponent’s opportunity column.

For every 1% that you hold back, is a 1% bigger chink in your armor.

If you have been fastidious enough to get to 99% effort, one, give yourself credit and then two, go back to work to give the other 1%.

The other 1% will require more effort than the first 20% but it will be worth it.

The last remaining 1% is tolling, it requires more work than it numerically suggests, but it also potentially gets more results than all the other percentage points combined.

So, it’s not 1% that you are fighting for, it is the benefits that the 1% brings.

There are very few people willing to do significantly more work than 1% to only get 1% in return.

But what they fail to realize is that last 1% returns back to you so much more.

It takes you to a new level.

Gladly give that 1%.

Get there.

All you can give is all that you have.

Give it all.

And you will always be at peace with yourself.

99% Effort Is Not Enough

Is an excerpt from

“Wrestling Rules for Life.”