How to Use the Two-Week Rule to

Become Remarkably Successful (and

Optimise Your Bucket List)
Two weeks is all it takes to find out what a goal means to you. And
what you're willing to do to achieve it.

Professional mountain biker Jeremiah Bishop laughed when I asked him to create a
training program to get me ready -- in three months -- for his 100-plus mile,
four-mountain-climb Gran Fondo. Then he agreed.

But he gave me a training plan only for the first two weeks.

Hold that thought.

The Problem With Huge Goals

While nearly everyone has at least one major goal they want to achieve, statistics
show that very few people actually achieve their goals.

Partly that's because we know ourselves better than anyone. We know what we
like. We know what we don't like. We know our habits and routines.

Most of all, we know our limits.

And that's where it falls apart, because most of our limits are self-imposed. You can
always do more than you think.

Navy SEALs call it the 40 percent rule: When you think you're done -- when your
mind says you're exhausted, fried, totally tapped out -- you still have 60 percent left
in your tank.
Yet your emotions -- in this case, your emotional response to the fatigue, effort, or
mental challenges you normally don't face -- get the best of you. Change is hard.
Adding something new to an already packed schedule is hard. Those first few days
of trying to create a minimum viable product, or cold-calling in search of an enabling
customer, or training for a marathon, or embarking on any difficult long term journey
towards a major goal?

They're hard.

When You Start Slow

That's why the plan, process, or routine you create for yourself rarely works. You're
willing to work hard, but not too hard. You're willing to work long, but not too long.
You're willing to push yourself, but certainly not too hard.

So you start slow. You start soft.

You start with an emotional safety net.

And within a few days, the resulting lack of progress -- because there's no way to
make a meaningful improvement toward any major goal in just a few days -- forces
you to confront the huge gulf between where you currently are and where you
someday hope to be.

And that's the moment, and the reason, we usually quit.

Not because we didn't want it badly enough. Not because we don't have the mental
toughness. Not because our goals weren't important or meaningful or worthwhile.

But because you started slow, and soft, and safe.

And never give yourself a real chance of success.

The Two-Week Rule
"Why just the first two weeks?" I asked Jeremiah

"Dude," he laughed, "First let's see if you make it through that."

At the time I thought he figured the plan he created would be too physically difficult.
(With just a few months to train, it needed to be difficult.) Why waste time creating a
12-week program?

But later I realized the emotional aspect of the first two weeks was just as
important.

After all: You can do anything -- you can make any change, or embrace any new
routine -- for two weeks. (If you can't, then you've clearly chosen a goal that doesn't
mean enough to you.)

If I couldn't stay the course for two weeks, then I definitely wouldn't stay the course
for three months.

Keep in mind giving up in the first two weeks wouldn't make me a failure. There's no
way to know what it takes to achieve a certain goal until you embark on the path
toward that goal; that's when you find out what you really want.

Or in some cases, don't want to.

Since we can't do everything, knowing what we aren't willing to do, based on the
tangible or emotional return on the investment of time and effort required, keeps us
from dreaming about a destination we will never reach.

So if I made it through the first two weeks, that means the goal really did mean
something to me.

And then there's this: At the end of that two weeks, I would have enjoyed some
level of success. Of improvement. Of return on effort. After two weeks -- especially
of a training program that required me to go for a three-hour ride on the very first
day -- I would be a little stronger. A little fitter. A lot more comfortable on the bike.
I would realize that the distance between where I was and where I wanted to be
may be huge, but not insurmountable.

That "all" I had to do was keep doing the work -- secure in the knowledge that I had
proved, to myself, that I was capable of doing the work.

After two weeks, my emotions started to work for me, not against me. I had gained
a little confidence. I had gained a little pride. I had gained the kind of satisfaction that
only comes from facing something hard, and actually doing it.

Next Time, Commit to Two Weeks

Pick a goal. Pick something you feel you want to achieve. Create a daily process or
routine you will follow. (Better yet, ask someone who has done what you want to do
to create a routine for you.)

Then commit to following that routine for two weeks. For each of the next 14 days,
keep your head down and focus solely on what you need to do that day. Not next
week. Not next month. Not next year.

Just today.

At the end of two weeks, you'll know whether you want to keep going. You'll know
whether the goal you chose means something to you or was just a whim. (Either
outcome is fine; "wasting" two weeks only to find out you don't want to run a
marathon is better than spending the next 20 years feeling like a failure because
you think you want to, but haven't.)

If you want to keep going, the tough two weeks you just put in will make it much
more likely that you'll stay the course over the long term. Partly because of the
improvement you've made -- improving is always fun, and we all like to do things
we're good at -- and because your emotions will start to work for you, not against
you.

The pride you'll feel in having stayed the course will help fuel future effort. The
fulfillment you'll gain from doing something most people can't will do wonders for
your confidence. The knowledge that you can achieve more than you ever dreamed
possible will inspire you to reach even farther.

Pick a goal, and commit to two weeks.

Because if you can't do something for two weeks, the goal doesn't mean enough to
you.

But if you can do it for two weeks, then the odds are good you can, with time and
effort, achieve what you really want to achieve.