Success and Excellence

We don’t solve our problems, so much as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems. The greatest and most important problems are all in a sense insoluble. They can not be ‘solved’, only outgrown. This is true in work, sport, relationships, life. People run away too often. Just be. Energy follows attention.

No more half-assing, thinking “I’m not sure I can do this”. Full ass it and ask “How am I doing this?” instead. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

In job success there is an exponential return where more work leads to more money. I’ve read that 10% more work makes 40% more money, so it helps to go a bit beyond the average or the expected. We’ll see how far that ‘quiet quitting’ trend gets folks. Jobs used to be about muscles. Now they are about the brain. One day they may be about heart.

When we witness great success we often want to duplicate it, yet the success rate is extremely low in doing so. Why is this? Well we can’t just ‘want’ the same success, we have to reverse engineer the success. This looks like first duplicating belief systems. You would have to have the same belief of success as the person you are admiring or looking up to. The same mental syntax is also required and this is how someone organizes their thoughts, makes decisions, and emotionalizes an experience. The third duplication needed would be physiology (tone, patterns, discipline).

When we consider these three aspects we can get the sense that duplicating based on want/desire is next to impossible. To recreate what another has or needs takes too much adoption of their own senses.

What we see versus what is real are often large in disparity. Lebron James. We see Talent. Genetics. Maybe even great teammates/coaches. We don’t so obviously see the million dollars he claims to spend on his body and wellness annually. Massage. Chiro. Hyperbaric chambers. Dietitians. Physio. Personal Trainer. Shooting coach. The ‘need’ to make it to the league to get out of the rough part of the city.

We see a Kenyan runner and think genetics and running a lot. We don’t see the altitude, the team mentality and support. The time away from family for running camps with teammates. The recovery modalities between runs. The need to win to create better for themselves, their family, and their village.

It’s never simple. Often the success desired by one can not be duplicated because of the need to win, or even the love of the game/journey is non-existent.

Final thought, seek and desire your success, not ‘theirs’.

“What is to give light must endure burning”.