Few if any boomer males are not aware of Bruce Lee. His popular kung fu, martial arts movies ran throughout most of our collective childhoods. I ran across a powerful post about Lee over the weekend by blogger James Altucher. And I think you’re going to love the idea that sparked the post. If you’re not continuing to push yourself in your third act, you’re clearly not a fan of Lee’s as you’re soon to find out. Read on for the details and Altucher’s complete post below.
Why Bruce Lee Doesn’t Care If You Die (If You Don’t Do This One Thing)
“Every day you can decide: 1% up. Or 1% down. You never notice it from day to day because it’s such a small difference.”
– James Altucher
Bruce Lee wanted one of his students to die.
Then he explained why.
And he’s right. I’ve seen this happen to people in my own life.
My best friend growing up died from it. He just gave up. He stopped.
Every day you can decide: 1% up. Or 1% down. You never notice it from day to day because it’s such a small difference.
Pick one area of your life you love. And improve it 1%.
It’s the most important thing you will do today.
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Written by someone being trained by Bruce Lee:
“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-tow minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a-half minutes per mile].
So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.”
I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.”
He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.”
I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.”
So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out.
I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” — and we’re still running — “if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.”
He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles.
Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it.
I said, you know, “Why did you say that?”
He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
You can see the post here. How do you feel about the idea of 1%? Does it still apply to you in your third act? Share your thoughts with us below.
Be well.
