I know you've seen them. Books, DVDs, seminars and web sites that promise you instant results to transform your life and/or your career. For just eleventy-nine dollars, you too can become everything you ever wanted to be, all in sixty seconds!

Sounds great, doesn't it? Just read a book, follow the six easy concepts, and suddenly you're rich, famous and good-looking! Your hair will even return to its natural color.

So let me ask a pointed question: If you've bought the books, attended the seminars, watched the DVDs, why are you still in pretty much the same place you were before you spent all that money?

For the most part, our society lives in Instant Gratification Mode. We know what we want and we want it right now. Unfortunately, however, unless you win the lottery, the chances of instantly changing your life or career are rather small. We forget that if we want the rewards, we have to do the work.

We've all heard the adage, "slow and steady wins the race." The saying in the entertainment business is that it takes about ten years to create an overnight sensation. Even there, slow and steady progress is a key to success. Here's a recent example I discovered today: Orianthi Panagaris, an Australian woman of Greek descent who is a fast rising star with serious credentials at the tender age of 25. Yet, she began playing guitar at age six, and at fifteen left school to pursue her passion.

Orianthi worked daily to get where she was; it didn't happen overnight. And she certainly didn't attend a Be a Guitar Goddess in Twenty Minutes seminar that changed her life and made her famous.

Another key to success is continuing progress. My father often said that when you stop striving to improve, you die. He'd say the same of learning, which is a specific form of improvement. As a musician, I learned firsthand that if you stagnate, you die, at least in terms of appeal to your target audience and those who book you, which means death in terms of income.

I also learned that you have to practice daily - even if all you want to do is maintain your current skill level. Bach often said that if he took a day off, he could tell; two days and his friends could tell; in three days the whole world could tell. Remember that he was one of the greatest musicians and composers of his day.

Consistent and continuous effort are required for success. You can't make an occasional mad dash for improvement and expect to see long-term results. You have to stay with it, day in and day out, sometimes for years, to see long-term results.

Instead of attempting to change everything at once, do everything different (and, hopefully, better) all in an afternoon, let me offer a solution that really does work:

The One Percent Solution - do 1% better, today.

That's it. Simple, isn't it? Just do 1% better. Here's the math: If you improve your performance by 1% each week, at the end of the year, you have improved your performance by almost 68% from where you were the year before. If you continued in this vein for a second year, you would be performing at 282% of where you were two years before.

Imagine - almost a full 200% improvement in just two years! And that's just by improving performance by 1% a week. Now let's look at daily improvement: If you were to improve by 1% per day, at the end of one year, you will have improved a whopping 3,778%! You will have improved your performance by a factor of 37!

In one year, which, if you're honest about it, is a relatively short time, you'll be 37 times better at what you do. I don't know about you but, to me, that's pretty incredible, and well worth the long-term focus and effort.

Obviously, your improvement will not be perfectly linear. Mine certainly has not been that way. There have been times when I made significant leaps in just a short time. But there have also been times when I had to put my head down and keep going for some time before breaking through the wall.

Some days you'll improve more; some days, less. It's all part of the process of learning to hit occasional plateaus. It's also part of the process to make significant strides in just a few days. However, without consistent effort, you will not break past the plateaus, and you won't make the great leaps, either. You've got to be willing to do the daily work, and you have to do it every day.

Now, let's go back to those books, DVDs and seminars. There are many useful learning resources available; some even have titles like the (made-up) examples I've mentioned. I've got more books on business and related topics than I can fit into my small home. I've attended many seminars, and have presented even more. The key is to take that information and put it to use on a daily basis instead of expecting instant, no-effort results.

Not long ago, I read the book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry (Jack Kornfield, Bantam Books). The book is a reminder that even though we can experience spiritual epiphanies, the true task is putting them to work in our daily lives. The same is true in our business lives - we may attend a seminar that sparks the light bulb, but it's the daily work that allows us to put that epiphany to work.

A teaching parable I learned many years ago perfectly illustrates the point:

A young seeker of knowledge was on a journey to a highly regarded monastery. As he walked along the road, he met a Master walking the other way, carrying a heavy burden. Stopping the Master, he asked, "please, Master, what is the meaning of enlightenment?"

The wizened old man placed his large bundle on the ground next to him, then stood erect and smiled benignly at the young man.

"Ah! I see!" said the seeker. "But, Master, may I ask, what comes after enlightenment?"

The old man, still smiling, again picked up his burden and, shouldering it once again, continued on his way.

This is what we must do if we are to improve: After the enlightenment of learning, we must continue the work necessary to success. Only then will we achieve our goals.

I encourage you to reflect on this. Can you see that improving just 1% at a time will allow you to achieve your goal far more quickly than occasional spurts of effort? Can you see that they key to success is slow, steady and consistent work? If so, I invite you to begin today.

Just do 1% better. Today. Tomorrow. And every day. Before you know it, you will have achieved your goal. One percent at a time. And that's a solution that each of us can implement.

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