What It Takes To Be Great.

Something I think a lot of people struggle with (especially myself) is figuring out what they are good at, figuring out how they can make an impact, figuring out life.

This morning, as I was cooling down from a killer legs workout, which halfway through I almost threw up, I flipped on an audiobook titled The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy I was nearing the end of.  I have read and listened to this book multiple times and I absolutely love it because there are so many golden nuggets you can add to your life that will benefit you immensely.

One of the golden nuggets I listened to this morning talked about becoming good at something. In today’s society, we are often given the illusion of the ‘overnight success.’ Stories like Facebook, Instagram or Amazon all seem to have become billionaire entities overnight. But about 99% of the time we are not told the entire truth, Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos all worked tirelessly for years, overcoming countless roadblocks and failures before their businesses were given the ‘success’ designation.

Darren Hardy said, with science backing his claims, that it takes about three years to get good at anything you want to improve on. Three years of hard work, and often unnoticed work, before people start to classify you as ‘good’ at something.

Now three years may seem like a long time and that is only to get good at something. Mastery is a completely different story. It takes five to seven years to develop mastery in a skill, quality or attribute. During this time you must be studying, practicing, reviewing and improving your craft on a daily basis.

Three years is a long time, and five years is ridiculous, but it is the price you must pay to become a master at something.

Speaking for myself, when I attempt a new venture, most of the time when I hit a speed bump I find myself losing motivation, quitting and trying something new. This cycle seems to repeat. To be truly successful I need to overcome these speed bumps and press on.

Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Consistency and focus are the keys to success.

In three years time, what do you wish you were good at? Write it down and make a plan to work on it every single day.

Start today, you are one day closer to mastery.