Far too often, people think they are special because they come from a special situation like a royal family, or have an exceptional talent that makes them different and better. It’s not what you say or where you come from that makes you special.
The truth is this:
You are not special because of who you are but what you do.
You become special through your actions. By what you do. Every day, day in and day out. Your actions define who you are and the person you will become.
Steve “Pre” Prefontaine was one of the greatest runners of all time. He had epic quotes that inspired me all my life. Here are a few:
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
It’s not who’s the best – it’s who can take the most pain.
“Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”
“I do it because I can, I can because I want to, I want to because you said I couldn’t.”
I’m going to work so that it’s a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.
A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.
Some day is not a day of the week. Saying you’re going to do something “some day” isn’t a plan and it isn’t realistic. When I hear “some day” I hear “never going to happen.” If you want something, don’t talk about some day. Pick a day and put it on the calendar and get it done.
In other words:
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
-Napoleon Hill
You should have a dream, but dreams are very low probability by definition. You should also have a plan. Have a dream and a plan. If a dream is less than 1% chance of accomplishing it, a plan is greater than 80% chance of accomplishing it.
-Steve Young’s dad
Good advice from Steve Young’s dad. Steve dreamed of being an NFL player, but he also had a backup plan to be a lawyer if that fell through. He actually went to law school while he was in the NFL.
Life moves quickly. Years can slip by unnoticed. Unless you are consciously pushing yourself, you may find with regret that you have squandered some of the best years of your life.
I try to imagine myself at 80, hanging out with my grandkids. What stories will I tell? What life did I live? Imagining that makes me want to take advantage of the time I have now as a younger man to live the life that’s worth telling in the future.
A slightly different idea in the same vein: I have a recurring reminder on my calendar: Goal setting for what it will make of you to achieve it. Set your goals big so the journey improves
Don’t let the years go by in unremarkable routine. Do crazy things. Take risks. Have fun. Make memories. Create stories. Life your life so you have great stories that you’re proud of in the end.
Here are some good quotes capturing this idea:
“The memories of a man in his old age; Are the deeds of a man in his prime.” – Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin
It’s hard to think of an example of a very successful person who wasn’t also VERY passionate about his or her work. There are so many quotes about the importance of being passionate about your work if you want to be truly great. Don’t settle on a work path for money or security. Instead, focus on your passion first and foremost. Through that passion, you will find greatness.
“If you love the hell out of what you’re doing, you’re usually pretty good at it and you wind up making your own breaks.” -Chuck Yeager
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. It’s a lot of hard work… and if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail.” -Steve Jobs
According to Steve, the path forward towards greatness is so hard that the only way it’s possible to persevere and continue against all odds is to be so passionate about your work that nothing can stop you.
Great advice for new employees to the workforce from https://andrew.grahamyooll.com/blog/Try-to-Take-My-Position/
My CTO leaned back in our 1-on-1 and said something that sounded almost threatening: “You want to get promoted? Try to take my position.”
I must have looked confused because he quickly added, “I don’t mean literally.” Though I still wonder sometimes…
What he meant was simpler and more powerful: start doing the job before you have the title. Take on more responsibility before you’re officially given it.
This advice has stuck with me through years of career growth, and later when I became a manager myself, I saw exactly why it works.
This advice flips the typical approach to career growth. Most people wait to be given more responsibility before they start taking it on. They wait for permission, for the title, for explicit direction.
But that’s backward.
If you want to be promoted, you need to demonstrate that you can already handle the role you’re trying to grow into. Not occasionally. Consistently. The title follows the behavior, not the other way around.
So if you want to get promoted: try to take your manager’s position. Start thinking about the problems they think about. Make the proposals they would make. Expand your vision to the team’s problems, not just your individual tasks.
Do it for six months, not six days.
That’s how you get promoted.
Some sage advice on social media and the distraction of phones:
The common trait among all successful people as they are never satisfied. They always keep pushing to get better and better and improve themselves, their companies, or the people aroudn them.
