Goal Setting and the 2% Solution

“Take a year. Give it a try. When you’re fifty-years old, you will have spent two percent of your life trying to make your dream come true. And when you look back, I think you’ll realize it was a good two percent.”---Bruce Feiler, The Council of Dads

“The fourth challenge in the Radical Experiment is to give some of your time in the next year to making the gospel known in a context outside your own city….We have discovered that 2% of our time living out the gospel in other contexts has a radical effect on the other 98% of our time living out the gospel in our own context.”---David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

One of the many principles I’ve learned in my life is that if I hear the same message from different sources in quick succession I need to heed the message---hence the 2% solution. This year my wife and I are applying it in the challenge from David Platt. We are going to Guatemala which is both outside our context and outside our comfort zone. How to apply this principle to my dreams though?

One way is to reverse the order. I don’t know what my dream is. If I were to spend one year doing something fully within my choosing what would it be? If I can figure out the answer then I am within shooting distance of my dream.

One can break this formula down any creative way you choose. If the ratio is roughly fifty-two to one; then for a normal 24 hour day (if my math serves right) we are talking about half-an-hour per day. What could you do for a half hour today that will bring you closer to fulfilling your dream?

Two percent. It’s a small number with huge potential on how to invest your life. Let me know what you come up with. I’ll keep you posted as I do the same. Gotta go!--- my half-an hour has come and gone.