The Rule of One-Third is a very powerful concept that can be used in every scenario: everyday life, career, or sport. Once you understand the concept, it will help you to plan for your career in a much smarter way.
The Origin of the Rule
The very first time I encountered the rule of One Third was through coach Chuck Kriese, when I attended his tennis clinic in Thailand back in 2007 before competing at the SEA Games. Coach Kriese, who used to coach DI men’s tennis team at Clemson, was coaching Thai national tennis team at that time.
The rule is very simple: to maximize performance, divide your tournament schedule into three parts: one-third of tournaments above
your level, one-third at your level, and one-third below your level. At first, it did not make sense to me because, like other high performing athletes, I am used to always aiming higher, being tougher, and going harder. Why would I waste my time playing weaker opponents? However, as I spent more time thinking about the concept, it became apparent to me that I might benefit from applying the rule of thirds.
Tennis is a very mental game. One can beat a superstar one day and lose to an underdog the next. There are many variables factoring into the outcome, and the most significant is your mental state. Confidence is key, and it doesn’t come overnight. There is a tenuous balance to confidence. Too much will cause you to be careless and make more mistakes while too little will doubt and tentative play through critical points. How do we train our confidence? That is where the rule of one-third comes in.
- One Third – Aim Higher
Stay close to those who are better than you for inspiration and direction. Make one-third of your tournaments ones in which you don’t have high expectations to pass more than a couple rounds. Avoid scheduling more than a third that are well beyond your current level, as repeated losses can eventually shake your confidence in your ability to win.
- One Third – Play at Your Level
Compete with people at your level to learn how to fight and dig in critical points. These are the tournaments in which if you play to your full ability, you can reasonably expect to advance to the later rounds or possibly win.
- One Third – Win at Lower Level
Finally, there is benefit in competing and succeeding in tournaments below your current level. While they may seem easy at first, these tournaments are mentally the toughest ones to play. You have little to gain if you win, but more at stake if you lose to an underdog. Learning how to win five matches in a row at any level builds confidence. The danger of constantly playing at the lower level is that if you don’t continue to push yourself and eventually, you will not reach your peak of potential.
Translating Sport to Business
I often use the rule of One Third in my business career. In life, you often have less control over the type of project and your supervisor but you have control to pick activities outside of work to balance your growth. As a consultant with few years of experience, I am fortunate to get stretch assignments. Most of the people I work with are my senior or are expert in the industry. How do I make sure that I am developing my confidence and skills?
One way to practice the skills I learned from work, is to do pro-bono consulting projects. One of the organizations I am fortunate to work with needed a five-year Strategic Plan to survive and thrive in the millennial age. As a coincidence, I had just completed a project for a M&A in which I utilized the Strategic Plan framework with the company. This was a perfect chance for me to apply lessons learned and to improve on things from my earlier project.
In order to gain confidence, I teach tennis to young children. It is a win-win combination for me because I get to learn while exercising my passion for developing the younger generation. You probably ask: What can you possibly bring from business to sport? A lot, actually. If not everything. Coaching is like managing people, if my student fails, I am very mindful of things I could have done to better position him or her for success. A lot of time, the gap in communication comes from my assumption that my students know what I know. Coaching young people brings confidence to me but more importantly, it helps me to affirm that I am practicing what I preach.
This has been just a single example of use of the rule of One-Third. You can use it for almost anything, from the type of people you spend your time with to the books you read. In short, understanding this concept has helped me to stay objective and focus on the long term whether I do well or struggle at work.
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