Intent and Intensity

What does "give 110% effort" mean?  

We hear it all the time, I even remember hearing it when I was a child and teenager a decade or so ago.  

We also hear, it is impossible to ever give more than 100% as a somewhat sarcastic retort, but it is possible.

I've seen it.  

As a society we have seen this a lot lately, even though we may not recognize or understand it.  If you work in health care or know someone who does, you can attest that giving "110%" has been the norm lately and is actually quantified by the numbers.  When you have an ICU or an emergency department that are running 5-10 extra beds for patients (which are actually called over capacity beds), this is beyond 100%.  This is done with no more funding, usually no extra staff (some cases even less) and no extra rooms.  These extra beds are usually put in hallways and sometimes even in between other beds when safe to do so.  This over capacity by definition is beyond 100% and if I were a betting man, I would say at times even exceeds "110%".

So, what does that mean? Simply put, anytime you give it your all and then push past your limits, you are giving "110%". 

When it comes to mastery in Kung Fu or anything really, if you only ever give 100% (or less), you are not pushing past your limits. Arguably, one could say anything less than 101% could be construed as mediocrity and a recipe for stagnation.

So, what does that mean? Does that mean to experience any growth you need to give at least 101%, 100% of the time?  I'm not sure, I'm actually not a mathematician.  That does seem pretty daunting.  But what I do know is that the more often you push and exceed your limits and the further you go beyond  them (say 10%), your limits will expand and growth is inevitable.

This is something that I have recently committed myself to.  Anytime I step on those mats, doesn't matter what I am doing, kicks, forms, stretching, I am giving 110% intensity.  I walk onto those mats with the mind set that I am not in a marathon today, today is a sprint. Now, over the long term I do realize this is a marathon, but maybe it is a marathon of sprints (in reviewing this, "sprints" was autocorrected to "spirits".  Although I must say a marathon of spirits does sound enticing, this does demonstrate that giving 110% in everything you do may not necessarily be productive).  

So, what this means for me is, I know that with this commitment, any investment of time into training is going to be as productive as possible.  There is no going through the motions.  For the 30, 60 or 90 minutes I am on those mats, there is nothing else.  I may need to ask myself "where am I and what am I doing?" on occasion, but that's okay. 

I challenge anyone else to try this as well. It doesn't have to be in all aspects of your life right now.  Start with something like training, regardless of what it is.  Then when you are ready, adopt that methodology in another area and another.  A simple investment of 10% will pay dividends of mastery and growth.

Thanks for reading.

Mike Kohut