Your 100%

Monday nights are yoga nights. It’s the perfect day—the most stressful day of the week because I’m getting back into the swing of things.

One of the things I most admire about my yoga teacher is that she really tries to make the class work at varying levels. It’s restorative yoga, so many people have body aches and she wants to do whatever she can to help ease some of that.

There’s one line that she says:

GO TO YOUR 100%

I love that. You know why? If you are new or you are hurting, she is not comparing you to herself or to the guy who’s been in her class for ten years. She wants, even expects, everyone to only go to THEIR OWN 100%. It looks different for different people.

My 100% is different now than it was 9 months ago, and I hope that my 100% is different a year from now. I get better and I can stretch myself farther.

What does this have to do with writing?

My 100% is not the same as my writing professors who’ve been in the business for 20 years. My 100% is also different from a person who just started writing seriously 6 months ago. But it doesn’t matter.

You need to do your 100%. You have to give it everything YOU’VE got. It may not be the same as anyone else.

“Measuring your dream against someone else’s is toxic but the idea of measuring progress is important. Without a way to measure what you’re doing, you’ll never really know how much your dream has grown as a result of all your hustle.”

—QUITTER by Jon Acuff

Tracking Your 100%

How can you tell if you’ve grown? Has your 100% changed? You can keep track of what you’re doing: your goals, your daily progress. How you do that is as individual as you are. But keep track. That way, you’ll know if you are continually pushing yourself and moving the 100% marker.

Push yourself as far as you can go. Don’t measure yourself against someone else.

Do YOUR 100%.