I bet you have had it before. The million-dollar business idea that will change your life around, the side project that you can turn into a full-time business or the exercise and diet plan that will put you back into shape.
But you just don’t do it. Either you tell yourself that you don’t have time or you lack the determination to stick to your plan, things don’t work out in the end.
It happens to all of us, not just you.
We are constantly being distracted by all the other things in our daily life – meetings, emails, to-dos, never-ending tasks, and personal issues to handle.
It is hard to stick to our plan and challenging to maintain our momentum and work on the goal that we want to achieve.
The good news is that everyone has the power and the ability to achieve all their goals if they know how to make things work.
And the best part? Robin Sharma, the best-selling author of The 5 AM Club has a powerful and life-changing rule that can help you on this.
Sir Robin Sharma called it – The 90/90/1 Rule.
But before we talk about this rule, here’s what you need to know…
It takes about 66 days to form a new habit
If you think that it takes 21 days to build a new habit, you’re wrong. The idea of 21 days was first mentioned by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s who began to notice his patients needed about 21 days to get used to their new face after going through an operation.
And in 1960, Dr. Maltz published a book called Psycho-Cybernetics which became a popular book that sold more than 30 million copies and has influenced most personal development experts to believe the idea that it takes 21 days to form a new habit.
So, how long does it really take to form a new habit then if it is not 21 days?
According to a study published by health psychology at University College London, Phillippa Lally and her team discovered that, on average, it takes about 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.
Lally’s research has studied the habits of people over a 12-week period including simple behavioral change such as “drinking a bottle of water with lunch”, to the more difficult one like “running 15 minutes before dinner”.
More difficult habits require a longer time to form. And some easier habits can be formed faster.
But on average, it requires about 66 days to develop a new habit.
Applying the 90/90/1 Rule to your life
Now you know that it takes about 2 months to build a new habit. Which means to say that if you want to develop a new habit or action to achieve your goals, you need to stick to your plan for at least 2 months.
And this is where the 90/90/1 Rule really shines.
Robin Sharma explained the rule by saying…
“For the next 90 days, the first 90 minutes of your workday, focus monomaniacally on your single most valuable project. I call it your game-changing move. It might be creating a new piece of code that will revolutionize the marketplace. It might be a new product that, when you launch it, will fill a need within your industry that no peer is currently providing. I don’t know what your game-changing move is, but this is your poetry. This is your magnum opus for the next 90 days.”
I strongly suggest you watch the video above to fully understand the rule as explained by Robin Sharma.
Identify your number one goal that you want to achieve. It can be your career goal, fitness goal, or financial goal.
And then apply the 90/90/1 Rule to it.
For example, if your #1 goal is to lose weight, then for the next 90 days, use your first 90 minutes in the morning to exercise and work out.
What if your goal is to build a better and more successful website or blog? Well then, apply the same rule to your goal.
For the next 90 days, spend your first 90 minutes of the day working on your website or blog. Focus monomaniacally on this one goal.
That means, no checking social media or emails, no reading news, etc., the only thing you do is to focus on that one goal and work on it for 90 minutes.
Don’t let anyone distract you and turn off your phone. Lock yourself your room if possible. Your main mission is to put 100% focus and work on that goal for 90 minutes.
This rule is powerful because it allows you to fully focus on just one goal for 90 days. Plus, if you stick to this rule, you will spend 90 minutes every day working on that day.
Can you imagine what you can achieve after the 90 days period?
Like what Sir Sharma said in the video…
“For the next 90 days, I will spend 90 minutes away from distraction, away from technology, away from interruptions, focusing on my magnum opus, focusing on the genius project that I want to bring into the world, because I will never mail it in, I will always bring it on. I’m going to do this for the next 90 minutes. I’m going to optimize it and iterate it every day. I’m going to bring my full bandwidth.” Because what makes a genius? They all have one trait in common: They were able to spend extended periods of time in isolation, focused monomaniacally on their most valuable project.
The 90/90/1 Rule also helps transform you into a master of what you do.
If you work on your craft for 90 days and for an hour and a half each day, your skill will increase. You become better after the 90 days period. You will slowly but surely master the skill.
What if 90 minutes is too long for you?
Well, you can customize the rule to become 50/50/1 or even 30/30/1. You can spend 30 minutes instead of 90 minutes on your goal.
But I’m here to suggest you try NOT to do so. Why?
The reason is simple, if a goal is really important to you, working on it for 90 minutes a day is considered not enough. In fact, you should focus and put in more time on the goal if the goal is going to change your life.
Hence, stick to 90 minutes.
Work on your goal for at least 90 minutes every day the first thing you start your day.
This is how extraordinary people are able to achieve outstanding results in their industry. They put in concentrated work and focus on their goal.
Every day, they become better through improvement, progress, and experience.
if you want to achieve extraordinary success in life, this is what you need to do.
In my course, Goal Setting Formula, I mentioned about this 90/90/1 Rule as well. Plus, in the course, you will get to learn how to engineer an actionable plan that you can stick to for the next 90 days to achieve your goal.
