18 Minutes a Day: The Simple Rule That Can Change Your Year

Photo by Kimberly Alves

A few weeks back, we shared a continuation of our topic on Consistency. If you missed them, check them out here: Part One, Two, and Three. 

In Part Four, we want to look at the Rule of 100, which has two meanings. The short version that many people follow in business is to do 100 consistent daily actions for 100 days. The second is often seen in personal development circles and translates to doing something specific for 100 hours per year. That number can scare people when they consider that if you were at work, you would be putting in a solid two and a half weeks of work, but that wouldn’t do any of us good. Putting in that amount of time might get us a big rocket launch toward our goals. Still, it would also cause us to burn out too fast, leaving us mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted, and as Marie Forleo said, “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally; it comes from what you do consistently.” 

So what’s a number we can really see as possible and that will help us become more consistent, disciplined, and determined? What would help us create better habits, and what would over time build our momentum toward our goals? 

Simple math shows that 100 hours × 60 minutes = 6,000 total minutes, and 6,000 minutes ÷ 365 days = 16.44 minutes per day. Typically, the 100 Hour Rule rounds up to 18 or even 20 minutes to compensate for a possible missed day and allow for easier scheduling. At 18 minutes, we gain an extra 1.5 minutes per day, which gives us a safety net of 9.5 bonus hours, meaning we can completely skip about 31 days a year if we have to and still hit our 100-hour milestone! 

We all have at least 18 extra minutes per day that we waste surfing the internet or doing whatever doesn’t move us any closer to our goals. Best of all, if we start a new habit for 18 minutes per day, we will build endurance and confidence that will encourage us, somewhere around three months to six months, to add another discipline. Stacking disciplines and overlapping goals gets us closer to where we want to be sooner than not. 

The concept behind the Rule of 100 Hours reminds us that mastery doesn’t require the massive amount of time most of us don’t have in our busy schedules. It does require one small thing, though: consistent time. The most powerful thing about it is that eighteen minutes a day, practiced for a year, separates the person who grows in skills, abilities, and more from the one who stalls out. In martial arts, and in life, excellence is not a talent; it’s a pattern that teaches us that “Consistency is what transforms average into excellence.”

The best way to stay consistent with anything is to surround yourself with like-minded people. If you need that in your life, look no further. Our student body and instructor team are second to none in their selfless efforts and in helping each other reach their goals. Message us if you need help, and we will see what we can do.

#ComingForYou2026
#YearOfTheHORSE
#FightTheGoodFight

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Guro Larry, Sonja, Lauren & Tori St. Clair
Martial Way Legacy
"A Compass to the Preservation of Bruce Lee’s Philosophy and Legacy"
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