The 5% Difference

Tom Ziglar, proud son of the great speaker and author, Zig Ziglar, had this to say about his dad and the way he approached life on his blog recently:

I am sure you are familiar with the headlines “make this your best year ever!” So how do you make 2009 your “best” year ever?

I think you can learn a lot from how Dad would prepare his speeches. He would invest hours and hours studying (for many years at least three hours every day) and then he would spend three or four hours preparing for and “fiddling” with his next speech. What amazed me is that his next speech would appear to me to be just like his last speech, but if you listened closely there was always a slight change.

No matter how good the reviews from his last talk, Dad always tried new things and customized the next talk. Without realizing it, Dad was benefiting from the 5% difference. Every speech, short or long, was always about 5% different and new from the previous one.

Some of the changes became permanent while others only got prime-time once.So how do you make 2009 your “best” year ever? Determine the three or four things that you do that have the greatest impact in your personal life and your professional life, and every day study how you can make them better, and then put in an extra 5%. Now you have set a new standard for yourself! As the shampoo instructions say: Repeat!

Simple things that demonstrate The 5% Difference
1. Write your spouse or child a love note
2. Go one more minute in your workout
3. Prepare three minutes before your big phone call
4. Get to work ten minutes early
5. Trade a bad food choice for a good one
6. Write a list of seven things you can do this week, and then do one each day