I have a question for you.
How much do you, individually, have to earn per year to have a top 10% income?
Gross (before tax) income for one person in one year.
What do you reckon?
Go on, have an actual guess.
Then scroll down (I want you to actually think of a number not just see the answer).
…….
…….
…….
…….
It’s £56,000 a year.
I’m reasonably confident you said something higher than this, yeah?
When I’ve asked people they normally go for somewhere between a hundred grand and a few million a year.
Apparently, on average, the more someone earns, the higher they think this number will be.
I’m not saying 56k isn’t a lot of money.
Just pointing out that top 10% income is probably lower than you thought?
As top 10% anything is.
Top 10% height for a man 6′ 1/2″ and for a woman is 5′ 7″.
Top 1% is 6′ 3.5″ and 5′ 10″.
And I could do the same with all manner of measurable variables.
A couple of strict pull up from hanging and 10 full range of motion press ups would probably put you in the top 10%.
About one quarter of a percent of people have run a sub four hour marathon.
I’d estimate a similar proportion of people have the low body fat levels you see on magazines and adverts.
Probably the same for any high level fitness performance you might be aware of.
I’m fairly confident that for most of those things you might have estimated different numbers.
Most attributes fit that bell distribution curve you might remember from school.
Where the vast majority are in the middle.
And the outliers are a fairly small percentage.
50% of people earn between 17.8k and 37.8k.
50% of British men are between 5′ 7″ and 5′ 11″.
There are seven footers and millionaires, but it’s a very low percentage of people.
The human brain isn’t great at creating a fair estimate of how we’re doing.
We’re tempted to think “everyone else is doing much better than me”.
Or that “I’m terrible at this” when we may be roughly average.
We’re disproportionately more exposed to outliers in all areas on the news, social media and elsewhere.
We beat ourselves up for our perceived imperfections.
Forgetting to congratulate ourselves when we do well.
Concentrating not on the ‘distance moved’ between where we were and where we are now………
But that distance between where we are now and a top 0.1% level.
We create further disappointment in ourselves.
Rather than building confidence from our progressions.
So, what’s the answer?
From my experience (nearly 20 years of doing this)……….
It’s to work towards steps along the way.
The horizon will always move.
Aiming for that means we never feel we’re getting there.
Aiming to move from Point A to Point B (or G to H) is something we can do relatively quickly.
Set a plan for.
Figure out what we’re actually going to do.
The steps to take.
To schedule and arrange them.
To do them.
Or learn from why they didn’t happen and adjust course.
Lose that first / next 10lbs.
Or 1lb.
Get 5% fitter, faster or stronger.
——— If you want proven help in doing this, then join our waiting list for January –> www.myrise.co.uk/apply ————
Get that next promotion, make steady gains in your business, etc.
Don’t worry about what a top 1 or 10% level of something looks like.
Or even where you might lie on that continuum.
Just set a plan to move to that logical next step.
Do that plan.
And repeat.
Much love,
Jon ‘Point Blank’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!