The Last 20%

The Home Stretch

Getting to 80% is relatively easy. It's not a walk in the park, but it's doable. As long as you're willing to make a small commitment, it's within reach.

But that last 20% is really hard. Getting from 80%-85% is significantly harder than 60%-80%, and 85%-90%, or 90%-95% is almost unimaginably difficult. That last 5% seems totally impossible, and in truth it probably requires a combination of full commitment, exceptional skill and talent, good mentors, experience, and some luck.

So the real question becomes, "Is it worth it?"

The answer depends on what you expect from life.

Do you expect a life that transcends the norm?

If so, then you'll have to go beyond the norms to achieve it.

Conflicting Interests

But what happens when you have two areas of life that conflict? You can't be 100% committed to your job AND your son's baseball games, can you?

My thinking here is that part of being 100% committed to life includes arranging it so you CAN.

In the above example, the answer would be to establish professional and familial expectations that don't conflict with one another. That might mean taking a different job that you can actually be 100% involved in.

I understand the realities are not always so simple.

But aiming for the ideal, while accepting and working with the reality, is always a better strategy than settling for less.

Don't live with your volume at half. Figure out how to live your life in full 5.1 surround sound. If that means watching fewer channels, that might be the way to go.

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