One Million. Right, most of us think right away of money.
One Million Dollars. A Million Bucks.
Not a problem with the thought, however, it is not the topic for this article. The question is what have you done intentionally a million times? Or maybe what are you working on and planning to do at least one million times?
In his book “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell writes about a 10,000 hour rule:
“The principle holds that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” are needed to become world-class in any field. When psychologists talk about deliberate practice, they mean practicing in a way that pushes your skill set as much as possible.”
Does this rule hold true as well for intentionally repeated actions done with intention and executed correctly?
For example: A batter practicing their swing in baseball or softball would need to take how many swings a day every day to master the action of swinging the bat. Now if the intention is to hit the ball, wouldn’t the practicing of swinging the bat need to be done with live pitching in order to be effective?
Again now the question is posed to you: The question is what have you done intentionally a million times? Or maybe what are you working on and planning to do at least one million times? In order to achieve what goal or purpose?
Now one of the keywords here is ‘intentionally’.
What this means is there are a few items we have all done a million times.
Almost all of us have:
- A heart that has beat over one million times.
Facts: If you use an average of 80 beats per minute, your heart beats about 4,800 times per hour. That’s a large number! 115,200 times per day. Over the course of a year, your heart would beat about 42,048,000 times! - People breathe all the time.
Facts: On average, a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. This means we breathe about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, 8,409,600 a year. Unless we get a lot of exercise. - Now we are getting closer to intentional items – taking steps.
Facts: The average moderately active person takes around 7,500 steps/day. In one year that is about 2,737,500 steps.
How many people wear some type of device like a FitBit on their wrist and track their daily steps with goals of at least 10,000 steps a day or more? They are intentionally going to go over one million steps each year. Their goal is either to be fit, be fitter, or to beat the competition. Hey whatever works for you keep on moving.
Now you are being asked again: what have you done intentionally a million times? Or maybe what are you working on and planning to do at least one million times? In order to achieve what goal or purpose?
Is your goal reasonable – meaning if you do the math what do you need to do and how often?
For Example: Part of my workout is Ab Crunches which are done on a Bosu. Basically this adds in some balance and allows for more muscles to be involved. Now my workout includes these Ab Crunches on the Bosu and 100 reps is the number.
Let’s look at the math –
If 100 Ab Crunches on the Bosu are done:
– 3 times a week – it is 300 a week – 1200 a month – 14,400 a year
At that rate it is going to take 69.44 years to get to a million!
If 100 Ab Crunches on the Bosu are done:
– 5 times a week – it is 500 a week – 2000 a month – 24,000 a year
At that rate it is going to take 41.66 years to get to a million!
If 100 Ab Crunches on the Bosu are done:
– 7 times a week – it is 700 a week – 2800 a month – 33,600 a year
At that rate it is going to take 29.76 years to get to a million!
As you are easily able to recognize by changing the number of days a week the goal may be reached in over half the time faster. Of course another approach may be to increase the number of reps each time.
What would the results be then?
What are you thinking about doing a million times?
- adding value to people?
- giving a talk?
- being a mentor?
- selling books?
- leading by having followers?
Would you be ready to share in the comments section what you are going to do a million times?
When will you start?
Mitch Tublin is the CEO and Founder of Wenkroy International LLC a boutique consulting company with a main focus on Strategic Business Consulting, Training and Business Coaching. Our passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their business.
