Everyone wants to be successful at something. Maybe you want to have a fantastic career selling real estate, or you want to become the best alligator juggler on the planet. We all have dreams; unless you are born with incredible eye-hand coordination and Popeye’s forearms, most of us have to work very hard to excel in our chosen profession.

But no matter how hard we work, sometimes we need to:

1. Wake Up Early.
2. Follow a Lead.
3. Make Your Goals Known.
4. Do Not Rely On Others.
5. Take Breaks.

1. Wake Up Early

Waking up early in the morning may seem like an essential tip in the world that successful people will tell you, but it also seems the least amount of fun. I am sure you have heard stories about Kobe Bryant showing up to the gym five hours early for practice at 4:30 am to get a full workout in before anyone else has even arrived. Or Steve Jobs waking up and getting to work at 6:00 am to get as much as possible completed before his kids left for school. Waking up early in the morning is no fun, but the truth of the matter is successful people try to get the jump on everyone else and do so by getting in a few extra hours before anyone else has started.

Now, you do not have to be crazy about it and completely upend your schedule just to lose some sleep, but if some tasks take priority and do not require any outside help, get them done early and out of the way so the rest of your day can be maximally productive! Life is unpredictable; anything throughout a typical day can throw your schedule completely off track. By waking up early, you give yourself control over your schedule.

Some people use the early morning hours differently and thrive equally as well. Some people choose to exercise first thing in the morning, which has significant benefits to their energy level throughout the day and their overall health allowing them to excel harder and longer than their peers. Others use the morning just to drink their coffee and relax. Whatever the case may be, the fact for getting a jump start on everyone else speaks for itself.

2. Follow a Lead

Following a lead can mean many different things, depending on how far you are in excelling at your goals. New to a job or career? It would be an excellent idea to find someone already succeeding to teach you their ways and mentor you until you become the successful person you know you can be. A great mentor is likely someone already doing these five things and, more importantly, has figured out the things NOT to do if you want to excel. Learning what not to do can be just as valuable.

If someone’s not looking to mentor you, or you can’t find one, find someone for which you have respect. It does not even have to an individual in the same profession. Our alligator juggler can look at the work ethic of his cousin, who tames lions and apply everything the lion tamer is doing to his work. 

Even if you are seemingly already on top of the world, there is always someone doing something you are not, and there is value in that. Bill Belicheck, perhaps the most celebrated professional coach to have ever existed, still studies the game of football rigorously and looks at what other successful offenses are doing and incorporating it into his philosophy. Regardless of how you feel about the guy or the Patriots as a whole, it is hard to argue that they are not excelling.

Following a lead is just another way of saying never to stop learning from others. You want to grow and become your successful person who has risen to the top according to their own making, but learning from others and sometimes following in their footsteps is a beautiful way to stay humble and keep that edge on your competition.

3. Make Your Goals Known

What does it take to become the world’s greatest alligator juggler? Is it how many gators you can juggle at once, or how long you can juggle four alligators? Is it more about the tricks like juggling with a blindfold and jumping through flaming hoops, or are you more of a juggling purist and keep it old school? The point is, it’s hard to excel without clearly defined goals.

Many successful people like to write their goals down. They can be public declarations over social media or just a note you keep at your desk. It is not necessary to broadcast your goals to the whole world; by clearly defining your goals and sharing them with somebody, you are now held accountable to an endpoint. It’s hard to aimlessly aim to excel when you haven’t pictured what success is itself. It may not even be a tangible goal like juggling six alligators, but it could be “I’m going to juggle alligators for two hours a day for a year.” Or a process that leads you closer to the ideal image of your successful self.

It is also just as easy to let yourself down. By sharing this goal with someone else, you have brought a third party into the relationship between you and your future self, who will bring pressure for you to hit those goals. We are all motivated differently, but that person could bring any kind of motivation into yourself. It can be embarrassment from failure, positive emotional support from someone who cares, or harmful advice from someone who does not, and your goal now is to prove them wrong! Maybe they will not be so snarky when they are dealing with giant reptiles coming at their face at high speeds.

4. Do Not Fully Rely on Others

Now, this seems like it flies in the face of the previous two entries. How can I not rely on others when I need other people? The answer is that these people are there to assist you on your journey, but ultimately it is up to you to excel and you alone.

The best mentor in the world can show you the ropes, but without effort and learning how to work hard, you will only get so far. At the end of the day, you have to believe that you are going to work harder than your competition and no one is going to hand you anything. When something does come easy, appreciate it, but do not take it for granted or even expect more of it in the future.

Everyone has a different starting point in their journey towards success, but the most successful among us make their path. As mentioned earlier, learning from others and surrounding yourself with people who are conducive to your goals is one of the best things you can do. But you cannot expect them to hand everything to you. The alligator juggler knows that ultimately he is the one responsible when he takes a stray tooth to the shoulder.

5. Take Breaks

Finally, what might be the most critical step to excel is sometimes not to try to excel at all. A dedicated state of mind and a strong sense of purpose will get you very far in your pursuit of excellence, but tunnel vision and a single-minded effort can ruin you. 

Our brain is our best asset, at times, our strongest muscle, and by letting yourself relax, you can rebuild energy and thought reserves to come back at your task harder and better than ever before.

Life is short too! If you are going to excel at anything, what is it all worth if you succeed but can’t enjoy it? After all, if our juggler juggles those alligators for too long, eventually he’s going to drop one, and it will not be a pretty sight.

Sources

Compass Real Estate

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