7 (not so easy) Steps to Become Excellent in Anything

by Paul Washington Uduk

In my most recent post I discussed what it involved to follow the wealthiest! Read here. I write this one as a sequel to follow it up.

It is my belief that mediocrity and wealth cannot be likened. Thus, in following the wealthiest it important to stand for what wealth truly represents.

The following 7 (not so) easy steps will aid in ones pursuit of excellence. Note I said "not so" easy. Do not be dismayed by that! Excellence doesn't come easy! at least to those who haven't habituated activities that bring excellent results. All the steps get better with use and once habituated become stitched to the fabric of our nature.

#1 Set Goals.

The successful endeavor in the realization of a worthy ideal lies heavily on ones ability to set goals. It cannot be replaced! Learn to set goals. It can be as easy as sitting down to write out the things you want and numbering them according to their degree of priority. Once you have picked the one with highest priority focus on that one, make it specific and measurable and be persistent in its achievement. 

#2 Plan.

Having goals without plans of how to attain them is as productive as the moon's ability to become and stay green. For excellent results, it is important to have plans; a tacky plan is far better than no plan at all!  Plans most be aligned with goals. Also, planning without follow-through is no planning at all. Try to figure out when, how and by whom specific tasks or target in your plan will be carried out.
Make your goals into projects and focus on them www.zenhabits.net recommends focusing on just three projects until all three is completed. Read here. 

#3 Control your stream of thoughts

This by far can be said to be the hardest! Being constantly bombarded with stimuli from external sources; News, undesired feedback, ailing mood of others, past failures etc., It becomes easy to look away from what we truly desire. I've found constantly repeating mantras to be very helpful especially when my mind is idle. You will find a list of helpful mantras here. Coming up with some that suits you and your needs isn't such a bad idea.

 #4 Don't Just Work Hard, Work Intelligently Hard

Deliberate effort towards something useless will NEVER bring useful results regardless of how much and how genuinely one wishes to see desired results. Serendipitous moment rarely happen and it would be unwise to rely on them. How we spend time doing work is very important to overall productivity. Work intelligently! Alex Zorach wrote a nice article on this in his blog. I highly recommend you read it. Be warned though its a bit lengthy.

#5 Remove 'failure' from your vocabulary

Napoleon Hill did and a great job in explaining his classic book "Laws of Success". He emphasized that the everyday meaning of failures are just temporary setbacks that if scrutinized properly with intelligent persistence ultimately bring success. 

#6 Know how you interpret feedback

Knowing the right way to interpret feedback is a great way to get us focused on our goals. It builds confidence and helps us interpret things in ways that suits us. I've heard and read from over a thousand sources that our environment mirrors who we are. It is therefore important that we interpret feedback not as they seem to be but as we are.

#7 Always ask for more!

We often hear that we should live in "contentment". Initially, I found this a bit confusing since I perceived the state of affairs of many situations around me to be utterly distasteful. I've realized that healthy discontentment with a healthy dose of expectancy is the way to live. It puts mediocrity at bay and ensures progress.

Cheers!

W.P.