Being great takes intentional work. Looking at others and where they are in life won’t help you get to your destination any sooner. In fact, it will probably deter you.
What you need to know is that you can always work on being great. There is no magic pill or a time table – it is achieved by consistent, daily actions.
There are many things that go into becoming great, but here are a few ways to get started.
Focus
Focus is necessary to become the great person you aim to be. Distractions come from everywhere (even yourself) and it takes away from the progress you intend to make.
Being present helps your focus. “Be where your feet are,” or pay attention to what’s in front of you. It’s guaranteed that a mishap or a fleeting thought will attempt to take you off course, but if you have strong focus, it’ll be less of an issue.
Distractions happen, but it’s the way we handle them that gets us in trouble (or not). A phone call, a hole in the ground or a nagging mosquito can take away your attention. No matter what it is, you should have a plan to deal with it, accordingly.
Part of being great is knowing how to save yourself before the disturbances happen. There are many creative ways you can focus on what’s in front of you, without giving your attention away.
Some people will work in blocks of time and give themselves a short break before getting back to it. Others will turn off their phone, so they can cut off communication. You can even put yourself in a completely different environment to avoid the normal distractions you always encounter. Find what works for you.
Resilience
It’s inevitable – you will come across obstacles, setbacks and mistakes. Again, the way you handle them is what contributes to your overall greatness.
Adversity is one of those things that we try our best to overlook, because it hurts our ego. We want to feel good all the time, but it’s not good for our personal greatness to give in whenever things don’t go our way.
Being resilient takes practice – fortunately, you’ll have many times to become better at it. It happens in all phases of your journey, so be prepared to embrace it and move forward.
Most people quit when they face adversity. They didn’t expect it, it happened at a bad time or it was there to stop them anyway (so they think). Whatever excuse is available to use, they’ll use it.
Understand that those challenges aren’t there to stop you – they’re there to make you stronger and more resilient. It builds your confidence once you successfully complete the ‘impossible’ task. The secret is to not give up.
When you make a mistake or experience a setback, think it through. It’s easy to stop, but that puts you in the same category as every other average person. If you are working towards being great, you’ll find a solution.
The solution may not be there, so you may have to create one. Get back up, practice putting one foot in front of the other and move – you don’t have to get stuck here. Some people bounce right back and some people take a break before pushing through, but the important thing is to keep moving.
The person who is great will rise to the occasion and work out a solution. It may not happen in a day, but the daily act of being productive towards the challenge will put you on the next level.
Discipline
Being great takes discipline. You can think about being focused and resilient all day long, but if you aren’t disciplined enough to impart those actions into your daily life, you’ve already lost the battle.
Discipline is doing what needs to be done – not what you feel like doing , when you feel like doing it. If it needs to be done to make progress, you need to do it.
When you’re in the process of becoming great, there’s no room for your emotions. If you only did things when you felt like it, nothing constructive would get done. You would still be sitting on the couch, waiting for something miraculous to happen.
This is where discipline should kick in and take the wheel. It’s as simple as the Nike logo: “Just do it.” Being disciplined builds your character, which makes you into a great person. Overthinking won’t get you far – you have to move to improve and that takes discipline.
Like focus and resilience, becoming disciplined takes practice. Start by performing small habits on a daily basis – things like making your bed every morning or exercising at the same time everyday. Keep building up to bigger habits and your discipline will begin to increase in other areas of your life, as well.
Another way is to create a rewards system. If you do that daunting task, give yourself a small reward for completing it. Eventually, you won’t need rewards to activate your discipline muscle – it’ll happen on it’s own.
The Process To Being Great
Being great doesn’t happen overnight – there’s work that goes into it. It takes much practice and consistency.
Everyone finds their greatness at different times – some people even lose their greatness, simply because they stop. It’s not something that stays after you achieve it – you have to continuously work at it everyday in order to keep it (and be it).
Being focused and resilient is a good start, but they’re not the only skills that need to be practiced. There are other techniques that should be practiced, as well (persistence, being consistent, time management, etc.). You want to be all around great, not half great.
The process to being great isn’t hard, it just takes a little more work. Once you get used to it, it will flow naturally and you will continue to experience new levels throughout the rest of your life.
Start today – go out and be great!