to evaluate the way we think about our possibilities and the steps we are going to take to achieve our goals. Your current existence was created by your thoughts and actions, and if you want to overcome your limitations and start living the life you know you deserve, you must start thinking and acting in ways that are beyond your expectations. When using weight loss as an example, let’s say your goal is to lose 10 lbs., apply the 10X rule and your goal is now 100lbs. Although you don’t need to lose 100lbs, it will encourage you to change your diet permanently. The idea is that you don’t need to do that much to lose 10lbs, which means the odds are increased that you revert back to your bad eating habits once you’ve lost the weight. However, when you have it in your mind that you need to lose 100lbs, you will focus on changing your diet and exercise habits as a lifestyle instead. The 10X rule will maximize your potential. When you believe you can achieve more than you initially thought, you will do what is required to achieve more, which will strengthen your discipline. It’s the norm for us to set low goals for ourselves so that we don’t feel so worthless when we fail. But if you want to get more out of life, you are going to need to raise the bar and set your standards higher. The 10 Minute Rule: You would assume that humans had better decisionmaking skills since we are far more mentally advanced than any other species. But a Harvard University study proves otherwise. The research involved giving chimpanzees and humans the same choice—to get two treats immediately or six treats in six minutes. The chimpanzees chose to wait for more treats seventy-two percent of the time, and the humans only chose to wait nineteen percent of the time. How did this happen? The problem is that the human brain is so overdeveloped that even when an answer is obvious, we overthink the decision. And because we have the ability to rationalize our behavior, we cheat ourselves out of a more favorable outcome. Humans tend to find it difficult to differentiate between a justification and an excuse. In the experiment, the humans may have convinced themselves that they deserved the treats because they were hungry and needed to satisfy their hunger, or that they weren’t too concerned about getting six treats later because they didn’t really like them anyway. Whereas the chimpanzees don’t have the ability to rationalize their decision; they act on instinct and it’s about survival of the fittest for them. The ten-minute rule becomes effective at the rationalization stage. Let’s say you are trying to lose weight and you decide you want a bag of chips, pause for ten minutes and then ask yourself if you still want the chips. If you decide you still