2,000 Percent Living Introduction

Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom.
And in all your getting,
get understanding.
Take firm hold of instruction,
do not let go;
Keep her, for she is your life.

— Proverbs 4:7, 13 (NKJV)

What is wisdom? It is doing God’s will through abiding in
Christ as Jesus described:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that
it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of
the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me
you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is
cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather
them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will
ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this
My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you
will be My disciples.” (John 15:1-8, NKJV)

This is a book about fruitfulness, about how born-again
Christians can accomplish more of what God intends.
When you follow His directions, you will assist in creating
valuable results that He wants. For your willing
contributions to those fruitful results, He will reward you
in heaven. In some cases, your life on Earth will also be
improved, but remember that exercising faith may,
instead, require suffering on Earth:

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that
they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had
trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and
imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in
two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented — of whom the world
was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all
these, having obtained a good testimony through
faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided
something better for us, that they should not be made
perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:35-40, NKJV)

In any case, Jesus promises that all your Earthly needs
will be met if you focus on the kingdom of God:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33,
NKJV)

Would you like to understand Godly ways that have led
some Christians to enjoy life more, to accomplish so much
that they amazed themselves, to have lots more free time,
to be with loved ones more often, and to earn a living in
less time and with less effort? When it is God’s will, those
are some of the potential benefits that 2,000 percent
living may offer you.

And while you may or may not gain Earthly benefits,
remember that you will certainly gain heavenly benefits
as Jesus promises:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20, NKJV)

To gain those benefits, you’ll have to make some changes:
Stop doing some harmful things and start doing some
more beneficial actions. In the process, you will use God’s
help to bring glory to Him and joy to you and those you
love.

How do I know what’s possible and what’s involved? With
God’s guidance through reading the Bible, prayer, and
listening to what I believe is His Holy Spirit, I’ve been
helping people make such improvements for many years
as demonstrations of the opportunity for everyone on
Earth to make improvements at twenty times the usual
rate. In addition, I’ve gained benefits from 2,000 percent
living for myself through the Lord’s grace.

Are you ready to start now? Read on to learn what to do.

Fulfill Your Potential by
Gaining the Right Knowledge
and Performing Breakthrough Service

“… he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger,
and he who governs as he who serves.”

— Luke 22:26 (NKJV)

Many people have the wrong idea about what talent is
for, seeing it as a resource for themselves. Instead they
should apply their talents to serve others in doing God’s
will.

Most people have no idea how little of the talent and
knowledge that God has given them they are employing.
I see that lack of awareness all the time among my
students. I believe that you are underestimating your
potential as well.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Dr. Burra Ramulu
worked as a shift supervisor at a fertilizer factory in the
Middle East for many years. However, his most important
responsibility was to train young Arabs to hold the
organization’s senior roles. He was effective in such
preparation, and all of those with positions above him in
the organization were younger men whom he had
originally trained.

After deciding to earn a doctorate, Dr. Ramulu became
interested in 2,000 percent solutions (ways of
accomplishing 20 times the results with the same or
less time, money, and effort). His first 2,000 percent
solution project was to study how his factory’s profits
could be increased by more than 20 times while
spending very little money for new investment. He
found a way to greatly increase capacity, improve
quality, expand productivity, and lower costs that only
required an investment equal to about 10 percent of
the plant’s existing capital base. As a result, cash flow
expanded by more than 20 times.

Realizing that his opportunities to advance his career were
constrained in the Middle East, Dr. Ramulu moved back to
his native India and took a position with a global producer
of basic commodities. As his dissertation subject, Dr.
Ramulu investigated how to create a new business model
for his employer, the first major business-model
improvement for that industry in more than fifty years.
As a result, he discovered a way to lower costs by over 40
percent, to reduce capital needs by even more, and to
expand his company’s business volume by several
hundred percent. The new business model was approved
by his employer and is now being pursued.

Not satisfied with what he had learned and accomplished
during the process of attaining his first doctorate, Dr.
Ramulu decided to study for a second one. This time his
dissertation work was based on an even more
fundamental problem: How to lift poor, uneducated
people out of despair and to make their lives hopeful and
economically successful. Choosing to serve Kasimpet, the
village where he grew up, Dr. Ramulu faithfully trekked
hundreds of kilometers across India on weekends to
teach the people there about 2,000 percent solutions.

Also supported by other volunteers who had once lived
in Kasimpet, an initial fifty people soon reformed the bad
thinking habits that had held them back, began using
better thinking processes, formed a cooperative, and
began designing and implementing profitable 2,000
percent solutions. In just a few months, most of those
fifty people increased their incomes by more than twenty
times, reduced their debts by more than 96 percent,
slashed the interest rates they were paying on the
remaining debt by 96 percent, and increased their net
worths by more than twenty times. They also gained
new, positive outlooks on life and sought to cooperate
with one another rather than be divided by the
accidents of birth from which castes are defined.

As this book was going to press, these fifty people had
pledged to teach what they had learned to at least
another twenty other people each who will be asked to
do the same for twenty more people. Dr. Ramulu hopes
that at least fifteen of the fifty will act on their pledges
so that the rest of the village will be able to gain the
same knowledge.

After everyone in the village is helped, the plan is to
adopt surrounding villages by sending Kasimpet’s experts
to help them.

Should enough people be faithful, much poverty and
despair can be eliminated from that part of India in just a
few years. You can keep track of the progress by going to
Dr. Ramulu’s Web site about this project, http://hstrial-
rburra.homestead.com/about.html.

Naturally, Dr. Ramulu enjoys a wonderful sense of
accomplishment from encouraging so many positive
improvements. Can you imagine the sense of satisfaction
that he enjoys each morning as he thinks about the
villagers?

What else might Dr. Ramulu accomplish? It’s up to what
God calls him to do. There is no practical limit to his
potential to succeed in serving others with God’s help.

There are millions of people with as much potential as
Dr. Ramulu has who could have done what he did to
serve others. But few of them choose to serve by learning
and teaching breakthrough skills. Dr. Ramulu made that
important choice, and that decision liberated him and
those he has taught into 2,000 percent living.

I pray that this book will do the same for you if that is
God’s will.

Foundations of 2,000 Percent Living

Become complete.
Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace;
and the God of love and peace will be with you.

— 2 Corinthians 13:11 (NKJV)

God wants us to focus on Him as we abide in Christ. To do
this, we need to be “of one mind” and avoid being double
minded:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the
one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon.”

(Matthew 6:24, NKJV)

Since I was young, people have often asked for my advice.
I have always been happy to share my ideas, and many
people have benefited. I have always been grateful to
God for granting me the ability to serve and for providing
His guidance for what to say and to write.

I was deeply humbled in 1995 when I believe that the
Holy Spirit directed me to lead an effort to help everyone
on the Earth accomplish at least twenty times more. (You
can read about the origins, methods, and conclusions of
what I call the 400 Year Project, ways to make 400 years
worth of normal improvements during the years from 2015
through 2035, in Adventures of an Optimist, Mitchell and
Company Press 2007, and at www.fastforward400.com.)
I was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task that
I had no idea what to do first. Fortunately, I believe that
He directed my steps and learning so that the necessary
solutions have been identified and described in the books
I have contributed to about the 400 Year Project.

Despite my willingness to help in every possible way, it
recently struck me that I may not have been sharing what
I have learned in the ways God intended: When I asked
people who have been reading about my work for years
what questions they would like me to answer about
accomplishing twenty times more, I found nothing new
in what they asked. In fact, I had previously written
answers to each of the questions I received.

From those responses I realized that people who want to
make breakthroughs in all aspects of their lives need a
brief compendium of the most important ways to
accomplish twenty times more. This book, 2,000 Percent
Living, is intended to facilitate those accomplishments.
After thinking about the possible contents for the book
over several years, I was surprised to be awakened at
1:30 a.m. on May 19, 2009, by a voice that dictated to me
in great detail what should be in this book. This dictation
continued for many hours and finally paused for me to
begin asking clarifying questions, which were then
answered. The instruction lasted over six hours.

From that experience, I believe that by writing this book
I am merely serving as a fleshly vehicle for a message
from the Holy Spirit that is intended for all people on
Earth. I pray that I have been faithful and accurate in
sharing with you what I was directed to write. Since
some receive false messages intended to deceive, you
should test what you read in this book through your
reading of the Bible and through prayer as we are directed
to do by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:29 (“Let two or three
prophets speak, and let the others judge.” NKJV).

The Lessons for You

But who can teach a lesson to God,
since he judges even the most powerful?

— Job 21:22 (NLT)

These lessons are intended to focus you first, last, and
throughout on God and doing His will. Don’t think of
these lessons as putting human reason or experience
ahead of His will and guidance. Instead, see each lesson as
being directed by the Holy Spirit of faith.

Most people rarely read nonfiction books, especially
Christian ones, dipping perhaps into one or two in a
decade. If that’s your reading pattern, this section is for
you. I summarize the elements of the book’s fourteen
lessons here.

If this information is enough for your purposes, stop after
reading this section. If you want to learn more about why
these solutions are important or how to implement them,
go to the lessons you want to learn more about.

If you would rather read a fuller treatment of the book’s
contents, you can skip this section and just begin reading
Lesson One.

Lesson One: Accept Salvation by repenting of your
sins; believe Jesus is God’s Son and in His
resurrection from the dead; and give your life to
Jesus Christ to do His will, not yours (or rededicate
your life to Him if you have accepted Salvation but
have not been walking with Him). Start every day
by praising and thanking the Lord; praying for what
is righteous that you want done in the name of Jesus;
and studying the Bible. Attend church whenever
possible; make a weekly written commitment of
added ways to follow His direction; and continually
witness to others about your faith, seeking to help
lead at least twenty people to whom you have
been speaking to choose to accept Salvation.

Doing these things will help you to hear and understand
the Holy Spirit who will guide your steps toward the most
productive directions on Earth, will provide you with
supernatural support for making performance
breakthroughs, and will help you earn eternal rewards to
be enjoyed in heaven. As a result, you will have all the
wisdom and power you need to do any righteous thing you
want that is in God’s will. Isn’t that awesome?

Lesson Two: Cleanse your mind of distractions,
accusations, worries, fears, and annoyances
through twice-daily meditation.

Most people have trouble accomplishing breakthroughs
because their minds are so full of idle, distracting chatter.
Meditation can reduce the volume of that irrelevant,
useless chatter by at least 96 percent so that you can
focus better on the worthy things that you want to do
with your life and hear the Holy Spirit better. You’ll
redirect lots of mental focus to work on opportunities
that you’ve been ignoring or not pursuing actively
enough.

Lesson Three: Pick better life objectives through
prayer and consultation with your family and
friends.

Many people are working long and very hard to achieve
results that aren’t going to please God, won’t be very
productive and satisfying for their lives, and will not be
supportive of their relationships with family and friends.
For example, one parent may be working long hours and
traveling to the ends of the Earth in search of faster
career progress so the family can have more possessions
and vacations; but the effect may simply be to undermine
the family and its spiritual life by not providing enough
time to be together in loving ways. Talk to the people
who know and care about you to get ideas for better
objectives, pray about what you hear, listen to the Holy
Spirit, and redirect your energies into far more fruitful
paths for His will.

Lesson Four: Increase by at least a factor of
twenty the time you spend on your most
important goals in serving the Lord.

What’s most important deserves top priority and more
than enough attention. Instead, most people spend the
bulk of their time attending to what others demand be
done immediately. By reorganizing and redirecting how
you spend your time, you will soon have the ability to
focus adequate attention and activity to make
breakthrough gains with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Lesson Five: Expand your ability to read,
comprehend, and remember by at least twenty
times.

In order to make breakthroughs, you need to gain a lot of
information you don’t yet know. Reading is very helpful as
one source for gathering the needed information. No matter
how well or how poorly you read now, there are methods to
help you make great improvements in permanently
capturing valuable information through reading. With the
Holy Spirit guiding your reading, you’ll then be led to
appreciate new things to do and how to accomplish old
things in better ways.

Lesson Six: Select reading materials that will
help you identify and understand the future
best practices (the best ways anyone in the
world will do that or any similar activity in
the next five years) and the ideal best
practices (the best ways anyone can ever
hope to do that or any similar activity by
using technology that will be available in the
next five years) in those areas where you
want to gain breakthrough results.

One reason most people accomplish far less than their
potential is because they are ignorant of what others
already know how to do. It’s far more productive to start
aiming for improvements after first drawing on the best
knowledge that’s available. With that knowledge in hand,
the Holy Spirit will show you valuable breakthroughs that
serve God.

Lesson Seven: Learn how to identify stalls
(bad thinking habits), to eliminate and
replace stalls with good thinking habits, and
to design and implement 2,000 percent
solutions to serve others on God’s behalf by
producing your first one.

Most people can develop their first 2,000 percent solution
with between 60 and 120 hours of reading, study, and
work under the Holy Spirit’s direction. If the
improvement area is an important one, the increased
performance gained from the solution will easily repay
the time, money, and effort that were invested. You
can learn to identify your bad thinking habits and replace
them with good ones and learn to develop 2,000 percent
solutions by reading, answering the questions in, and
applying The 2,000 Percent Solution (AMACOM, 1999)
and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook (iUniverse,
2005). You can obtain free e-copies of those books by
registering (and confirming your registration by replying
to the e-mail that’s sent immediately — check your spam
folder) at www.2000percentsolution.com.

Lesson Eight: Teach someone else how to
identify and eliminate stalls and to design
and implement 2,000 percent solutions
that are attuned to the Holy Spirit.

The only thing better than creating your own 2,000
percent solutions is having others create them for God
without you. When you teach someone the process, you
gain the potential to create more Godly benefits from
their work. At the same time, the Holy Spirit will help
you deepen your understanding of the process. If you
ask those you teach to teach others, you create the
potential to enjoy a family, circle of friends, and an
organization that’s so wonderfully productive for God
that most important tasks require little time, attention,
or expense.

Lesson Nine: Apply the 2,000 percent solution
process each year to one additional important
activity that the Holy Spirit leads you to improve.

In this way, you will become more effective in designing
and implementing solutions and surround yourself with
the benefits of having many more solutions. Otherwise,
you’ll probably fall into your old habits of using far too
much time, money, and effort to accomplish what’s
needed, wasting your life and not fulfilling God’s purposes
for you.

Lesson Ten: Repeat the 2,000 percent solution
process annually to enhance benefits from the
solutions you developed by at least an additional
twenty times.

Most people never repeat the 2,000 percent solution
process. That’s a big mistake in ignoring the Holy Spirit’s
potential to make you more fruitful because the gains
from the first repetition will be twenty times larger than
the initial gains. And the gains from the second repetition
will be 400 times greater than the initial improvement.
And so on. In addition, repeating the process in the same
solution area usually takes much less time than on the
preceding occasion.

Lesson Eleven: Link together at least seven
complementary 2,000 percent solutions to
create multiplied, exponential Godly results.

This is a 2,000 percent solution for making 2,000 percent
solutions by increasing the combined gain achieved from
each solution by at least 63,999,980 times. How’s that for
increased productivity on God’s behalf? The Holy Spirit
will be essential to picking the right complementary
solutions to work on. You can also read about some possible
complementary 2,000 percent solutions for an organization
in Chapters 10 and 11 of Adventures of an Optimist and in
The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution (Mitchell and
Company Press, 2007).

Lesson Twelve: Increase the benefits of what
you do by twenty times to assist some of those
who cannot help you.

Many people take the easy way out when it comes to
providing for the poor and helpless, not heeding the Holy
Spirit’s directions to serve others. As a result, they may
simply write a check to help with the symptom of the
person’s problems (such as buying a meal for a hungry
person) while not helping to eliminate the source of the
problem (which might be the lack of reading skills
needed to get a good job).

By using your 2,000 percent solution skills under the
Holy Spirit’s direction to serve those who cannot help
you, you improve the quality of your life by purifying
your heart through becoming more humble. Otherwise,
all your success with 2,000 percent solutions may make
you prideful, spoiling your relationship with God, the
Father, the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

Lesson Thirteen: Approach others with fresh
interest, warm gratitude, and a deep desire
to draw twenty times closer to them.

Your successes may isolate you from many people God
wants you to be in contact with if you don’t take steps to
offset that tendency. Begin by seeking the Holy Spirit’s
help to become well acquainted with everyone who is
near you (family, friends, neighbors, fellow churchgoers,
coworkers, those who serve you, people you travel with,
and those you see on the street). Then, find out how they
look at life to find the views that you share with them.
Encourage them to regularly pursue locating views they
share with you and others. Appreciate them for who they
are each time you see or think of them. Seek
opportunities to be with them and to talk with them more
often. Pray for them daily. Ask the Holy Spirit what else
you should be doing with them. You can also read a number
of ways to accomplish these results with little time, money,
and effort in Chapter 9 of Adventures of an Optimist.

Lesson Fourteen: Examine your conduct
before acting to see if it will be pleasing to
God.

Throughout the day, try to look at your choices through
His eyes before acting and ask the Holy Spirit to direct
you. When you find that you’ve made a mistake,
immediately repent and ask His forgiveness and seek to
correct the error for those who are affected. Pray for
guidance in how to do better next time. In addition, pray
several times a day for a pure heart and to be acting in
His will. The mistakes you avoid will save you from acting
in rebellion to God’s will and wasting endless amounts of
time. In addition, fixing right away whatever mistakes
you do make will limit the damage so that you won’t have
to do as much later on and can, instead, follow the Holy
Spirit to the next Godly task you are intended to do.

Fourteen items make a long list, don’t they? Relax.

Acting in each area is not as challenging as you might first
think. You will have Christ in you, guiding your every step.
The Holy Spirit will keep you on the right path. You’ll also
find that most of these activities quickly become
comfortable habits. And you don’t have to master all of
them at the same time. You can just work on one item at
a time until you feel comfortable adding the next one. If
you take that approach, I recommend that you work on
Lesson One first, followed by Lesson Fourteen, before
working on Lesson Two.

In addition, you’ll soon be gaining wonderful benefits from
your focus on being closer to God. Each breakthrough will
make you feel great and encourage you to seek even more
significant gains.

May God bless you, your family, and all you do in the
name of Jesus!

Copyright 2010 Donald W. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved