All In

A story about the moment you stop holding back.

 

All in is the only way to really see change.

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Math works differently when it comes to transformation. In everyday life, success is measured in increments: 2 is better than 1, 27 is better than 24. But when it comes to changing your life, your health, or your world, the numbers don’t add up the same way.

See, most people don’t live at 98% and miss the mark by just a hair. Most people live at 75%, sometimes even 51%, when they’re “trying” to change. And that’s the problem. They commit just enough to say they’ve started, but not enough to cross the threshold where real change happens. And this is dangerous, because by trying just enough to prove it “didn’t work,” they set themselves up for something worse than failure. They lose belief in themselves. The half-effort failure becomes evidence that they can’t change at all, and from that place, many never find the courage to go 100% again.

Science explains this well. Many systems don’t operate in gradual increments, but at thresholds. Nothing happens until you cross the line and then everything changes.

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• A neuron doesn’t half-fire. It either fires or it doesn’t. That’s called the “all-or-none” law in neuroscience.

• Boiling water rises slowly in temperature, but at 212°F the state changes completely. One degree is the difference between hot water and steam.

• Ice melts to water, water becomes vapor. These are called phase transitions, and they prove that 98% and 100% are worlds apart. At 98, you’re not across the threshold. At 100, you are transformed.​

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I see this in real life all the time. Someone comes to me, desperate to beat a disease. They want to believe, but they don’t believe in themselves yet. I don’t mind that. I understand it. But, once they grasp the principles of The Brae 100, once they see the life-changing effects of full commitment, many of them become 100% all in.

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And let me be clear: The Brae 100 doesn’t promise that all your problems will vanish, or that you’ll become 100% healthy. That might be a possible intended consequence, but it’s not the focus. The focus is this: to be 100% on your purposeful path.

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It’s like running a race. One man runs with his whole intent fixed on reaching a distance. He counts every step toward that marker. But another man runs for the love of the distance itself, for the ground beneath his feet, for the air in his lungs, for the experience of the run. That second man will always run farther, because he is fueled not by a finish line but by the presence of the journey.

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Science supports this too. Psychologists have found that partial commitment almost always leads to failure. When someone says, “I’ll try,” their chances plummet, compared to when they say, “I will.” Angela Duckworth’s research on grit shows that relentless, all-in perseverance beats talent or intelligence every time. Halfway effort, never builds the resilience needed to push through setbacks.

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The math also compounds over time. In exponential functions, small differences at the start become massive later. At first, 98% vs. 100% doesn’t look like much. But repeated daily, that 2% gap compounds into a completely different trajectory. If you only give 98%, skipping, hesitating, holding back, that compounding power collapses.

And don’t forget the finishing effect. In behavioral science, the brain’s reward system lights up when we finish something. “Almost done” doesn’t trigger the same wiring. 100% completion does. That’s why closing loops, checking boxes, and finishing workouts matters. The soul thrives on finishing, not on “almost.”

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This is also why I teach the Red Alert principle. When you feel yourself slipping from total commitment, your chance of quitting skyrockets. That’s when you must call it out to yourself, to your coach, and to your community. Accountability and reflection keep you locked in. Athletes call it “staying locked in.” Soldiers call it “staying mission-focused.” Either way, the point is the same: guard the 100% at all costs.

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It’s like physics: a mass at rest stays at rest, and a mass in motion stays in motion. Half-commitment means part of your soul never leaves the ground. And if it hasn’t left the ground, it won’t accidentally take flight later. But when you are fully committed, your soul is airborne. Even through tough days, through boredom, through what looks like failure, you won’t come back down. From that higher view, you will always see further.

Now let me address the two excuses I hear most often: “I don’t have the time” and “I can’t afford it.”

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The irony is, with our company we’ve always made The Brae 100 available for free, if someone truly can’t afford it. We’ve worked painstakingly to create a program that requires no expensive gym memberships, no fancy equipment, and none of the supplements, unless someone chooses them. We did that deliberately, to take away every excuse.

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And when someone says, “I don’t have time,” I remember a saying I once heard: “Spend some of your time and some of your resources now, to grow healthy, or later, when you’re sick, you’ll spend all of your time and all of your resources just trying to get well.” That’s not a scare tactic. It’s reality. You either invest in health now, or you’ll be forced to invest in sickness later. The choice isn’t whether you’ll pay,  it’s when and how.

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This is why 100% matters.

Not 75%.

Not 98%.

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Because, in the math of transformation, the gap between “almost” and “all” is infinite. One is rust; quiet, corrosive, and hollowing you out from the inside. The other is life in motion; relentless, purposeful, and free.

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All in is the only way change happens.

Not almost. Not try. Not someday. 

All in.