Porsche and Personal Development

Since I was a young kid I’ve always loved the Porsche 911. It’s a beautiful car. In many ways, the Porsche 911 hasn’t changed a lot since I was a kid. This came up in a conversation I had with a friend not long ago. My friend, Dave, is also a coach but spent some of his career in the car business.

He explained that this was by design. Apparently, Ferdinand Porsche was questioned about the minimal change year-to-year at the Berlin Auto Show many years ago and his response was, “We are in the business of evolution not revolution”.

I haven’t been able to find that exact quote but I did find one that was very similar. August Achleitner, automotive engineer and the head of the model line for 18 years, was quoted in an article on?newsroom.porsche.com?as saying, “The development of the 911 is always an evolution, never a revolution”.

As my friend Dave and I talked about Porsche’s focus on making small changes over time our conversation moved to personal development. Personal development is also about making small changes daily. Over time those small changes cause us to evolve into something new, something better. Over time they create a revolution in our lives.

James Clear wrote a New York Times best-selling book named, “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” (not an affiliate link). In the book, James teaches a system for getting 1% better every day. Taking advantage of compound interest, what Einstein said was the 8th wonder of the world, at the end of a year you get 37% better. Let’s look at an example.

One of the things you’ll probably hear me talk about the most if you follow me on online platforms is breathing. Breathing is the foundation of controlling our mind, and there are tons of benefits both mentally and physically from proper breathing.

I recommend to my clients that you do at least 20 minutes of box breathing per day, but if you are just starting out that is likely too much; WAY too much! Your mind will start to wander, and you’ll get frustrated and quit. So I recommend starting out at about 5 minutes. If that doesn’t work start out at 3. I’ve even recommended to some that they start with a single breath at various times throughout the day.

As we begin to breathe and pay attention to our breath and thoughts we start to get better. Our minds begin to quite. We become more comfortable with the silence. Day by day we are getting 1% better in every way! Once there is a comfort level at that interval we increase the amount of time and repeat the process. We do this until the client hits the goal of 20 minutes or whatever the end goal is for that individual.

I used breathing as an example but the same holds true for anything we set out to accomplish. Losing weight, running a marathon, getting a black belt in a martial art, starting a business, increasing your bottom line, etc. Set an end goal and commit to a daily 1% effort toward that goal until you reach it. I guarantee it will revolutionize your life!