6 Dirty Little Secrets to Being the Best at Just About Anything.

We don’t like losing. Not one little bit. It’s counterintuitive to the massive chemical systems keeping our bodies energized, motivated, and catapulting towards a future that we want for ourselves.

Losing is uncomfortable. Heck, we struggle at times to drop a few extra unneeded pounds. And that’s something that we can easily justify as a good thing.

We are wired with an instinct to achieve greatness. Despite all the bad stuff you may have on your plate right now, your cerebral “wit and wisdom factory” is working overtime to provide you with the tools to overcome the odds and dominate any obstacles in your way.

Whether you are closing a deal, building a team, leading a movement, fighting to be heard, or generally in pursuit of “success”, you know you need to be the best.

And here’s the dirty little secret of how to make sure you get there every time.

You keep getting better.

No matter what happens, you keep taking steps toward being better.

And the simple truth behind this secret is that most of us don’t do that.

We do enough to be better than someone at sometime, somewhere. But then decide that good enough is an achievement all by itself and stop trying.

Claiming “Grade A Good” status. Polished, clean, good-looking (completely sterile) OK-ocity.

And it’s sad; because what could have been amazing and transformational is just acceptable and transactional.

So what to do?

It’s simple.

You decide to keep being better.

1. You spend more time reading and learning. — What you don’t know can hurt you. And it can certainly limit your performance. Anyone can skim the headlines. Few take the time to explore the reason a “why”. To be the best, you need to spend time learning new skills and generating deep knowledge.
2. You devote more quiet time to nurturing your brain and finding inspiration. — More zen is a great thing for all of us. Quiet meditation allows the brain to expand it’s capacity for unique and monumental ideas. Sadly, we schedule our lives at such a frenetic pace that we miss the opportunity to formulate acts of genius. To be the best, you need to slow down.
3. You chose to disdain mediocrity even though it’s easily accepted. — Just because those around you accept less than your best from you doesn’t mean that the standard for excellence has changed. You know what you can achieve. And even though it takes a lot of guts sometimes to keep pushing forward in spite of being pretty darn good already, that’s still the secret formula. To be the best you have to expect more from yourself than anyone else around you.
4. You plan outrageous acts of defiance and move beyond conventional wisdom. – Sometimes you just need to stage a good old-fashioned rebellion. You need to move beyond buzzwords, jargon, and industry “speak” to conversations that are meaningful and personal – engaging at an intimate level that compels thinking and imagination. Instead of following the rules, you change the game and create new rules. To be the best, you need to be bold.
5. You push back against social peer pressure and the fear of bold expression. — Just because your friends are doing it doesn’t mean it’s what you should be doing it. Let’s face it, you being different can look like a pretty scary predicament. But it’s the key to achieving outrageous acts of success. The crowd may be loud, but joining in their shouting won’t make you any more successful. To be the best you need to be a unique brand of you.
6. You study failure and achievement and improve the core pieces that demand attention. — Change what you don’t like. Fix what you think is broken. Analyze the words, thoughts, and motivations that you want to improve and then work step-by-step to make them better. And get some help along the way. Grab a coach. Hire a mentor. To be the best you just need to keep trying.

Make no mistake.

Being the best is tough work. You have the unenviable position of being the target to surpass for excellence and meaningful achievement.

But being the best is remarkably predictable.

If you’re unapologetically willing to keep getting better, you’re on your way to being the best.

And that’s a secret worth sharing.