Tag: learning

The key to excellence, greatness, and success

Consistent, hard work gains success.
“Consistent, hard work gains success.” – Dwayne Johnson

There is a quote attributed to Aristotle that says, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”

Excellence, success, greatness…these are things to strive for, but you don’t achieve any of them with a single action. They come with consistent action towards your goals. Set goals, review them daily, and decide what are the most important actions you need to take today to bring you a little (or a lot) closer to your goals. What habits do you need to have in place?

A lot of us (myself included) get caught up with wanting to learn more. Learning is great. Gaining more knowledge is great. But it won’t get you anywhere near success if you don’t apply that knowledge and turn it into action. Don’t confuse reading with taking action towards your goals…yes, it could give you a good foundation. It can help you avoid making the same mistakes that others have made, but often we lie to ourselves saying that we are preparing to take action, when really we’re procrastinating.

Take consistent action everyday. Live purposely. Act intentionally. Success, excellence, and greatness will come if you are consistent with your actions, but if you’re not, you’ll miss the opportunity when it’s here.

Welcoming disagreements

One of the most difficult lessons many leaders learn (or fail to learn) is the necessity to welcome and tolerate disagreement.
“One of the most difficult lessons many leaders learn (or fail to learn) is the necessity to welcome and tolerate disagreement.”

There are two ends of the agreement spectrum that we should try to avoid…

The first is to be 💯% agreeable on everything, aka a “yes man.” This is conflict avoidance at its worst.

The other end of the spectrum is to always shut others’ ideas down right away because they don’t align with your thoughts. Nobody can tell you anything if it doesn’t support your opinion. This is someone who craves confrontation and seeks it out.

I’m working on improving in this area (on both ends of the spectrum) – trying to learn the best ways to tactfully disagree. You should have original thoughts and feel comfortable voicing your opinion. But there are things that matter more and things that matter less which should/shouldn’t be argued about or debated. You don’t have to “win” every argument, and by always “needing” to be right, you will eventually discourage others from voicing their opinions around you.

Just do it

If you wait to start until you feel like you’re “ready,” you’ll never get started.

You’ll never be 100% ready for what happens next because we can’t predict the future. All you can do is put yourself in the best position to succeed by reading about a subject and asking others who have already accomplished what you want to do. From there, take action. Even if you’re taking baby steps, that’s better than procrastinating and always being in learning mode.

We often confuse learning with productivity. Learning is amazing, but if you don’t do anything with what you’ve learned, it should actually be re-categorized as entertainment. DOING something meaningful is productive. Make sure that you don’t confuse step one (learning) and step two (taking action to stay busy) with productivity.

On mentoring

You should always strive to have a mentor and be a mentor. Doing this will allow you to understand that a) you don’t know everything and b) you have a lot of knowledge to pass along to ease the path of someone else. Having a mentor should keep you humble, yet being a mentor can help to boost your confidence. It should put you in a mindset to learn and a mindset to teach. It should let you give in addition to receiving.