Inspired by two awesome posts – one by Jonathan Fields and one by Seth Godin – I’ve had yet another epiphany.
At its core, it’s this: always be willing to go the extra mile, to do what others might deem ‘unreasonable’, to do the right thing.
Why? Because, my friends, that’s just what you do. Doing what’s right and spending the extra energy to make sure it gets done should be a part of you, something that’s just part of your identity. It should be automatic.
Now – getting to that point isn’t easy. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult, since you’ll be fighting the temptation to give in and only give what’s deemed “good enough”.
But you have to tell yourself that being “good enough” just isn’t good enough anymore. Being you – a person of power, respect, love, creativity, and integrity – demands more. It demands a higher standard – not perfection, but the willingness to go above and beyond what others expect of you to produce something excellent.
In the Way You Do Anything, You Do Everything
If the world could be changed by thought alone, we’d be moving things with our minds.
Action is the only thing that can produce any sort of lasting change on the world, because it makes your thoughts manifest themselves in reality.
The attitude you have when taking action ultimately determines the quality of whatever you end up doing.
Are you going to accept anything less than your best? If you do at least once, then you’re going to set up a pattern of inconsistency, where sometimes you really shine, and others – you don’t.
This is why they say “In the way you do anything, you do everything.” Excellence is a habit, as Aristotle so astutely pointed out. Consistency is what separates the men from the boys. If you want to be great and not just good, becoming consistently excellent is the price you have to pay – but the rewards are immense.
So, even when you’re feeling your worst, things aren’t going right, or you’re just not motivated to do work, you still have to show up and prove your emotions wrong. You have to prove that, despite the nausea and the cramps, you can still try to do your best work.
It’s all a game, with one rule: if anything holds you back from giving your best effort, you lose.
Will you perform at your best? Probably not. However, if you go into it with the determination and the belief that, no matter how you feel, you are still going to try your best, you will still perform much better than if you had just wallowed in your misery.
The key isn’t to be perfect all the time, or even be perfect at all.
No, what separates the true professionals from the rest of us is that they make the best out of what they have. They’re not excellent every time they work. Sometimes, they’re not even great. Or good. But the key is, whenever they sit down and do anything, they have the attitude to get the most out of whatever they’re doing.
And, even when they’re about to break, they always go one step further. They go beyond everyone else’s expectations to provide something better than just “good”. They make it great with their willingness to put the extra work in, whether that’s taking some personal time out of their day to help a client or putting some finishing touches on their blog post, even when they thought it was ‘done’.
Because, they think, that’s what pros do. So they do it.
And that’s what you can do, too – if you’re willing to make the commitment.
Becoming a professional at living life is scary because there aren’t any more excuses. You can’t throw in the towel on doing work or even having fun for the day just because you woke up with a headache. Now, you’re gonna have to wake up, take some Advil with your morning cup o’ joe, and you’re going to have to face the day and give your all.
Why? When that day comes, you’ll say to yourself, “Well, that’s just what I do.”
Action Steps!
1. From now on, no matter what you feel like, show up for your work (and your life) and give all that you have.
2. Smile in satisfaction to yourself when you go to bed each night because you know you made the most of your day, no matter how you felt or what went wrong.
Somehow this sounds like a recipe for burnout to me….
The fact is that to do something great you have to decide to do something else less great. It is all about priorities.
This is right for me to read at this time. We’ve got builders in and I’m so tense and stressed, I feel like doing nothing whatsoever. I need to take action.
When I go to bed at night, I figure out what exactly will make tomorrow a success. I write it down. Then, when I get up the next day, I spend the day doing it.
You have to define what it means to show up and kick butt. Then, when you do it, nothing tastes sweeter!
Hey man,
Inspiring post. I’m actually kind of feeling like I don’t know what to do because I’m not seeing results and it just feels so endless, no clear direction. It can be hard when you have to walk your own path, but I’d never be happy with a normal 9-5 job, at least I don’t think so.
How is life on your side, what are your plans for the year?
Cheers
Diggy
You’re totally right, showing up and getting the work done is the only way amazing things happen. If you’ve got a plan, you’re working it and measuring results you’ve just got to be present.
I’m going to take to heart the part about feeling good when you go to bed. Nothings worse than working your tail of only to go to bed feeling worse than when you started.
Thanks for the post.
Nice post, I like the part about going to bed with a satisfied smile on your face (as creepy as that may be. I strongly believe in rewarding yourself for good/right/productive behavior and if you do live out the ‘life of excellence’,then man theres going to be alot of rewards! Thanks Brett
Dom
@Chris: The key is to do something so great that the things that you’re not doing so great don’t even show up on your radar. They become irrelevant to you if you’re doing things that are great.
@Anne-Lynn: Relax first, then act. Relaxation is an underrated way to boost your performance, since there’s nothing preventing you from achieving flow.
@Tom: I schedule things in my day, so I don’t waste a minute. That way, when I wake up, everything’s all planned – all I have to do is show up and execute..
Failing to plan is planning to fail, as they say.
@Diggy: Things are going well! We’ll skype soon, big guy
@Dominic: Yep – rewarding yourself is KEY to keeping up the momentum.
You’re welcome, my friend
Great post! Your principles remind me of a quote that goes something like this:
“The highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity. Choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over popularity…these are the choices that measure your life. Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.”
Going the extra mile and giving everything that you have is traveling the path of integrity. Never settle for anything less than the absolute best; and that means to never settle for anything less than the best from yourself.
Rock on!
Anthony
Absolutely, Anthony!
Keep rocking yourself, mate!
Just recently started following your blog. Enjoying it! Keep up the good work.
This article particularly resonated with me and reminded me of a book I recently read called “Mastery” by George Leonard. He talks about how you master a skill-set and that reaching mastery isn’t like a steady graph slowly building upwards. Instead there are plateaus.
Imagine a flight of stairs. Each stair is a plateau, you keep chipping away at it, you don’t see any progress for quite sometime, it’s dead still and horizontal in terms of graphs. You might even get dis-motivated and frustrated. But all of the sudden you GET IT! And you gain instant success and have reached a new level in terms of that skill-set.
Only to land on another plateau on the master staircase. But however you’ve now learned to just trust in the process. No one is above it. You need to pay your dues, and the results will come.
Allan,
Mastery is one of my favorite books ever, and realizing when I’m on a plateau has been huge for me. It makes me stop pressing to do better than I am in the moment and makes me reconsider my actions… I’m a believer in the idea that we can do some things to accelerate the rate at which we break through a plateau and onto the next one; that, essentially, it’s not our skills that are holding us back, but our preparation.
You’re the only person I know who’s referenced Mastery, so here’s an e-cookie for that! Awesome comment!