The 1% Challenge

Hola and welcome back!

Today I want to share a quick trick to help you move forward on your goals. It’s called The 1% Challenge. Sounds like fun, right?

I first heard about it in church. In the Bible, God asks His people to tithe - to give the first 10% of their income to the church. It’s a financial sacrifice, yes, but it’s also an act of worship and a way to help the church reach one more life for Christ.

Many years ago, I had a pastor in Austin - John Burke of Gateway Church - who presented a unique version of this principle. At the time, the church was trying to raise additional funds for missions. His challenge was simple: give just 1% more than you already were. If you were tithing 10%, could you stretch to 11%? If you were giving nothing, could you start with 1%?

The idea of that little stretch - that 1% - stuck with me.

Try It Outside of Finances

What if you applied the 1% Challenge to your time, your habits, or your goals?

Let’s say you want to read more. Could you commit 1% of your week to reading? There are 168 hours in a week. One percent of that is 1.68 hours - or about 1 hour and 41 minutes a week. Break it down daily and it’s just 14 minutes and a few seconds a day.

Now that sounds a lot more doable than, say, committing to finish a book every week or even every month, doesn’t it?

Still feel like that’s too much? Ok, let’s adjust the scope.

Let’s Get Creative

Assume you sleep 8 hours a night. That leaves you 112 waking hours a week. One percent of that? 1.12 hours, or 1 hour and 7 minutes total - just 10 minutes a day!

Still too much? Let’s take out sleep and work. Say you sleep 8 hours a night and work 40 hours a week. That leaves you with 72 hours of “free” time per week. One percent of that? 43 minutes a week, or just over 6 minutes a day.

I dare you to tell me you can’t find 6 minutes a day.

The Point Is This

Hopefully through all this math (which I promise is done for now), you see two important truths:

1. The 1% Challenge is small by design.

2. It’s YOUR challenge - you get to shape it.

This is how we take those Baby Steps to Glory. We start with what we have, where we are, and we move forward just 1% at a time.

Once you feel steady at 1%, go to 2%. Then 3%, then 4%. These things build on each other - small, faithful steps that grow over time.

Have you tried the 1% Challenge before? What was your goal? How did it go?

Until next time,

- Jordan