I am sure we have all heard someone say 80% will be good enough. If you really want to excell, if you reall want to achieve your life goals, sometimes 80% may not be enough.
Lately I have been on a new eating plan and 9 weeks it in it is all going very well and it has made me reflect on why this time it has been successful and why I am going to achieve what I have been trying to achieve for 3 or 4 years.
There are several reasons I can point to but the single biggest one I believe is that I have been VERY consistent and stuck to the plan. I have not been 100% perfect but I would say I've been 97% perfect and the results are showing.
In the case of my nutrition, until I started on this plan I would've said I was 80% good with my diet and nutrition. If anyone looked at what I ate each day they would say I ate very healthy and ate very well overall, 80% of the time. But 80% kept me stuck where I was. 80% kept me 10 pounds or so above where I wanted to. 80% made my gymnastics harder than they should have been and 80% wasn't what I wanted and it wasn't enough. To achieve what I wanted I needed 95%+, I had to very exceptionally good not pretty good.
The same goes for training. To excell and really improve I had to show up 95% of the time, I had to push myself and go for it 95% of the time. I train 5 times a week, so 80% would mean missing one session a week. That might be ok to maintain fitness and strength, but it is not a recipe for excellence.
There are moments in life when we simply can't do what we want and showing up and giving 80% is all we have. But putting those moments aside, if you are serious about achieving your goals, moderation and average may not be enough, you may need to push yourself beyond 80% and go for excellence.