The 10-80-10 Rule
At fourteen years old, my friend Mike’s son is throwing a baseball at 84 mph. The kid loves the game, and he matches this love of baseball with the same analytical approach to sports as my friend Mike (not his real name).
Mike was a Division 1 tennis player. His interest in tennis came relatively late in life, at fourteen. But he was good, very good. He left his family and moved to one of those combination tennis schools in Florida. He was good enough to get a partial scholarship. At graduation, his tennis career ended, and he became a successful entrepreneur.
When he told me about his son's pitching talent, I asked him, "What do you share with your son that you learned as a D1 athlete?"
“There are two pieces of advice I share with him,” he answered.
“The first and most important is, 'If you continue to love the game, keep going. If you stop having fun playing baseball, stop playing. It doesn't matter how good you are. Always remember, it's a game.'
“The second piece of advice is the 10-80-10 performance rule.
“Ten percent of the time, the game will be easy for you. When you are in this zone, everything you do will be right and effortless, without thought. Every pitch will be working, and you will be seemingly unhittable.
“The other ten percent of the time, nothing will work for you. You'll find yourself overthinking and pressing harder, and none of your pitches will work. You will get 'rocked' by every hitter who steps to the plate.
“Shoot for the 80% zone.
“The best players in the world live in this performance zone. This is the consistently great zone. In this 80% zone, most of your pitches are working. You stop pitching the ones that don't work. You use the pitches that do work to get batters out. This zone is the balance between letting your body do what it does well and thinking about what you are doing. Great players live here.”
Mike told him, "You can't expect to be in the 10% all the time. If you have this expectation, you will burn yourself out and always be disappointed with your performance. Similarly, when you are in the other 10%, you must quickly realize that it is not your day. To be the best you can be, you must strive to live in the 80% zone every day. This is your performance zone.”
When he told me this, I was reminded of a member-member golf tournament I played in over twenty-five years ago. I was paired with a member who had a two-handicap when I was fourteen.
That first day of the tournament, I was hoping I would shoot my handicap and not let my partner down. Every time I played with this guy in the past, he would shoot in the low seventies. He was a baller. Me? I was a bit erratic.
That first day, I shot an eighty-two.
He shot an eighty-six. I beat him straight up. I felt great about my performance but felt bad for my partner. But when I went to shake his hand, he was just fine.
I asked him, "How are you doing?"
He said, "I’m fine. I just had a bad day. Tomorrow will be different." And he said this in a lighthearted, sincere way.
When he said this, I thought, “Why can’t I be like him when I have a bad day at golf?”
The next day, I shot ninety, and he shot seventy-one.
He clearly understood the 10-80-10 performance principle. I didn't, and I still didn't get it until my friend Mike told me the advice he gave his son.
Since that conversation, I have been wondering how I can apply the 10-80-10 Performance Zone Principle to my faith, my marriage, my writing, my interviewing, my finances, my kids, my grandchildren, my friendships, my health, my diet, and my weight—in short, how I can live my life in the 80% zone.
I have a terrible habit.
I beat myself up if my performance did not meet my expectations. It must stem from my being a perfectionist. And it is this perfectionism and the resulting personal disappointment that drove me to drink. And now, sober for over thirty years, there is no escape. I have to learn to cope with this personality flaw. My help comes from Kathy, my loving, godly wife. She sees right through me and knows God’s truth.
She says, “Stop beating yourself up. That isn’t God talking.”
I also have friends like Mike who shared his 10-80-10 Performance Zone Principle at just the right time. All he did was tell his story about how he helped his son.
I do have exceptional days and bad days. But most of the time, I live in the 80%, and they are great days—challenging but great. That’s the 80% zone.