
How To Be Excellent At Anything In 4 Proven Steps
Everyone wants to be excellent at something, but it takes hard work and dedication to reach mastery. To be excellent is different from being the best; it means consistently doing your best to achieve the highest level of performance. Being the best means consistently outperforming everyone else. Why do we need to be excellent? Because average is boring!
Transcript
Because it's not because you do your best that you're going to reach the level that you want to reach,
Right?
No But if you do your best You can be proud of yourself and you deserve this self-love and self-compassion If you're not just get your head together and start acting in Alignment to who you want to be and what you want to do Hi everyone,
Welcome to another episode in our interview series how to achieve success and fulfillment through self mastery and today the Conversation is about how to be excellent at anything.
So that's my first question Why do we need to be excellent at anything?
Because average is boring,
Isn't it?
We're not here to be average.
We're here to be awesome.
And well,
You cannot be excellent at Everything but you can strive to get better at everything you do Right,
You cannot be in the top 2% of the world in every aspect of life,
But you can be better than you were yesterday So it's about picking one or two things that you want to be excellent in yeah,
And it's it's nothing to do with Perfection,
Which is an abstract concept.
It's really about how can I get better at what I'm doing right now gaining more mastery more Autonomy more ownership of whatever I'm doing.
So this is a very healthy things to do in your life Because we here to grow we here to learn we here to progress on our on our journey of life,
Right?
And so this is being intentionally or having the intention to get better every single day at something You think everybody has that feeling?
Everybody has this striving to work I think I can name some people who don't have the ambition to be excellent in anything They just live their life and they're okay I agree and I find it a little bit sad because we are here to use our full potential why we can do so many things But a lot of time we settle for just nice just okay just good why I Think there is a part of a brain that wants to protect us that well You know if you don't try to get better at least you're not gonna fail You're gonna be whatever you are and that feels comfortable that feels certain and I know It's it's not like I don't want to blame anyone because this is how the human brain works,
Right?
We are we are lazy.
You want to conserve energy if something is just okay.
What would you do more?
Why would you some effort when you go through some hardship just stay where you are,
But I find it a bit sad Right.
We have this potential to do so much more I don't want to be dying and just think like oh I could have done more.
I could have been more No,
So we can create this ancient intentionality every single day.
It doesn't have to be Incredibly,
It doesn't have to be a massive massive effort to get there It can be just getting a little bit better than where you were yesterday just even 1% But if you compound that over time there is a tremendous change So,
How do you find that one or two things that do you want to be excellent in?
Well,
You can strive to be better at everything you do,
Right?
But I think to really reach this high high level of mastery in something You're gonna have to pick something that is worth struggling for something that lights you up something that makes you feel good,
Right?
I'm not gonna talk really about passion because a lot of time people develop passion After doing the work for years,
Right?
So we we start doing something we increase our autonomy or mastery about it and slowly we start developing passion so it's about more following the curiosities that you have following those things that Excites you to do and strive to get better at those things.
Yeah,
So it's coming really from the inside It's not other people that telling you You're so good at this and then trying to be excellent at that because it's never gonna work if it's 100% Extrinsic motivation on the long term.
You're gonna get empty with that.
You need to find to feel this Intrinsic reward so you keep pushing So,
Okay Now we all want to be excellent that that one or two things that we figured out Is there a strategy a way that we can achieve this fast because we have limited time,
Of course.
Yeah Yeah,
Definitely.
So I develop a process.
It's a four-step Method to help you to get better at whatever you want to get better at right?
The first step is to Gain awareness because if you don't know what you want to improve,
There is no chance.
You're gonna improve it,
Right?
It's awareness about your situation About your thoughts about your emotions about your behavior,
Right?
When you understand what's happening and you dare to face the hard truth,
Then only you can start moving forward,
Right?
I like to say Listen to your bank account to the scale to the pull a bar or to the mirror.
They don't lie They give you the hard truth,
Right and sometimes yes It's not comfortable to face the reality as it is But it's necessary if you want to grow if you want to move forward you're gonna have to do an assessment and see what is Where you are and where you want to go Okay,
And when this awareness is clear,
That's the first step.
What is the second step of this process?
The second step is ownership So basically is taking responsibility for where you are now You're not always responsible for a situation where you always have power and control about how you react to it So it's not great to say.
Oh,
I'm overweight and this is because of my behavior I'm Not in the job that's fulfilling the most.
Well you Choose to get there,
Right?
It's really realizing that oh Every act is an act of self-definition to use the quote from the Dolan Walsh,
Right?
Is that every day you create your life every day you choose who you want to be what you want to do?
How you show up and so taking ownership for your situation really means that oh,
I'm here where I am today It's not the way I want to be but this is because I did this and that I take ownership I think responsibly for that and only then you start really empowering yourself to keep moving forward Yeah,
Can I because I feel like there's a thin line between taking ownership or blaming yourself like if you Feeling overweight and you're blaming yourself for that extra cookie that you ate.
Are you taking ownership?
Like I'm overweight What is the difference and how would you?
Know that's a very good question.
I think Self compassion self love it's super important,
Right?
We need to be kind to ourselves and usually we're not so much now I think there is a really thin line as you said because the moment that you justify your lack of discipline or the behavior that you should not have You justify it with self-compassion and self-love.
I think it's really this trick It's really negative because it doesn't really help it to move forward Let's say that you say I'm gonna go to the gym three times a week and you don't go to the gym for two weeks Like oh,
Yeah,
But I should not be too hard on myself.
It was really hard with work,
Etc Then you start just making excuses and you justify your Negative behavior with self-love and self-compassion.
It doesn't work.
That's not gonna lead you to greatness 100% sure now I think the moment you should have self-compassion and self-love is Every time that you keep doing your best Because it's not because you do your best that you're gonna reach the level as you want to reach,
Right?
No but if you do your best You can be proud of yourself and you deserve to self-love and self-compassion If you're not just get your shit together and start acting in alignment to who you want to be and what you want to do What's the third step?
The third step is taking action because you know where you are You know where you want to go,
You know,
What led you there you take ownership of it But if you don't take action,
Nothing is gonna happen success does not just happen You need to start taking actions,
Right?
And so this is the moment when you create and define clearly where you want to go You explore the different possibilities to get there alone with a buddy or with a professional as a coach and Then after you create a strategy To have the milestones to have what you need to do tomorrow next week next month,
Etc to get there,
Right?
So you put in place this structure that's gonna help you to reach success It's important to not wait for all the conditions to be perfect all the time.
Sometimes it makes sense But most of the time it doesn't Well,
We tend to say I'm gonna do it next month next week and you keep postponing that for later Because we are scared to start we don't feel really confident we feel like an imposter which is not a problem itself because Confidence is really gonna start coming and you're gonna build it after taking small actions one and then the other and then the other and Then you start feeling better more confident about your abilities and you start trusting yourself more So it's important to not always wait for the perfect moment or for you ready start before you're ready and get ready on the way Okay,
So we have awareness Ownership action.
What is the last step?
Discipline Because if you do one,
Let's say you want to have a big bicep you go to the gym You do one bicep curl then you look at your bicep.
Come on grow.
It's not gonna work,
Right?
It's sustained actions over time that's gonna help you to get where you want to go and You start with the motivation because in the just the phase before you have the plan the strategy the structure You know how you're gonna take action.
You feel super motivated because you know why it is important to you great Then on the way,
You're gonna have to use a little bit of your willpower to stay on track,
Right?
But this is momentary.
It's like a muscle it gets tired.
You cannot use that all the time So the only way to make sure that you're gonna reach your goal on the long term is to build self-discipline Building self-discipline is reminding yourself what you want to do.
Why is that important for you and acting accordingly?
So only when you do that,
You start changing your behavior.
You start changing your identity and it's helping you to Follow your goal on automatic pilot,
Right?
Because you know how you need to show up every single day.
So Self-discipline is essential to reach Mastery in whatever it is.
Actually shell discipline is necessary for whatever for living for life otherwise you keep giving up into temptation and you and you just drift you just react to life instead of living a created life and be Very intentional about who you are how you show up what you want to do.
And what do you want to create in your life?
So and what do you do in those moments that you feel a bit low and not motivated that excuses or an inner critic voices?
Coming up.
How do you keep going?
Like I think it's to take the time to slow down and remembering Why do you do what you're doing because sometimes we also We get lost in the process and you don't remember.
What is the big picture?
So slowing down looking at the big picture again that can really help to reignite this motivation,
Right?
Remembering why is that important for me?
What is the cost of not doing it?
What if I don't do it?
How am I gonna feel and then putting in place a Support structure is very important having someone who can keep you accountable who can support you when it's difficult and Cheer you on when you actually have big wins or small wins,
Right?
So having a structure on yourself is very important Okay,
So we've done step one,
Two,
Three four,
Then what are we done?
Excellent at whatever I chose Yeah,
I wish no,
This is a long-term game,
Right?
This is this is when you start you do the four steps and then you go back to step one,
Which is awareness So after doing this you are taking action over time and it's time to have a really check You gain awareness about your situation.
It's kind of the feedback.
I was there.
I'm here.
I want to go there What helped what did work?
What did not work?
What do I need to change?
And then from there you start taking ownership?
Okay,
I did that I did not do that.
I should have done that I should not have done that when you take ownership of those things you start putting a new action plan based on the previous one That's gonna help you to get better at it.
And then you start taking action you build discipline and you do the loop again So it's it's kind of an infinite loop because you never really get excellent at something You always get better at how compared to how you were yesterday that that's what really matter because chasing perfection It's not possible.
But if every day you better than the that how you were yesterday It's a celebration.
It's a win.
It's a success
4.8 (11)
Recent Reviews
Gabylinn
July 14, 2024
Thank you for sharing! I think this method could work and I'll give it a try 👍
