It is so sad but true that many people on earth rely on ‘luck’ or just mere chance for their achievement. There are others though that actually give in the minimum or just enough effort to guarantee their success. The latter are the average achievers while the former are failures who only live out mediocre lives.
The truly excellent persons, the great achievers would never be found leaving anything to chance or settling for good enough. They are always searching and aiming for the best; always pushing their way to the top and once at the top they don’t rest but go over the top. They make the top their new ground zero and begin a fresh for a new peak.
What great achievers do or demonstrate is their desire to always go the extra mile. Great achievers never settle for just enough; they dig deeper, they pull harder and stretch higher. It will do you well to note that nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished any where else but on the extra mile. Check it out: is it a great book? Is it a scientific discovery? Is it a wonderful sermon or a sporting victory? For answers ask William Shakespeare or Thomas Edison or Rev. Billy Graham or Wilma Rudolph.
Great achievers do not have any business with the average. They hate the status average with a passion which in turn gives them a drive for excellence; with a passion. Great achievers never think in terms of good but always ‘it can be better.’ Once something is better, they begin to see it as good and now another drive to better it sets in.
Under- achievers are people who see or set limits on what they can achieve. They are so much contained by these limits that all they ever do or achieve lie within the confines of that limit. They never dare to push forward but rather are always being pushed back by the limits or boundaries they set for themselves.
Someone has said that, ‘there are no hold ups on the extra mile.’ This is very true which is why the world is so full of under- achievers and unsuccessful people than there are great achievers and successful people. On this great high way that has enough space to take all of the world’s successes, only a few dare to drive on. Only a few actually Go The Extra Mile.
This piece is written to help you be an achiever by showing you key areas of your life you should go the extra mile on.
Think Well and Take Firm Decisions- Many people so easily say (without thinking) that, ‘I didn’t even think about it, I just did it.’ This is how those who do not want to go the extra mile behave. Your decisions show what your choices are and your choices shape your life. They determine whether you are traveling in the direction of success and so you have to choose well every time you have to.
Great achievers take time to make their decisions. They think always in term of their decisions’ long and short term consequences; how it will affect their lives and others especially their loved ones. Good decisions save a lot of time. They are cost effective and relief a lot of stress. ‘Look before you leap’ is an old adage that is new to great achievers.
This should not be mistaken to mean that great achievers are slow thinkers or that they do not take risks. As a matter of fact they take more risk than the under- achievers only they take calculated risks.
Write Down Your Goals- Zig Ziglar said, ‘until you commit your goals down on paper you have intentions that are seeds without soil.’ From research only three percent of people ever write down their goals and just one percent reviews them. The people in the elite one percent are the great achievers that go the extra mile. Make every effort to be on the extra mile in goal setting. Not one of the people you find on this sacred one percent is average achievers. They are all Super Achievers in their field of endeavour.
What is that thing you so dream of or fantasize about? You want it to come to pass? Set it as a goal and continually review it and see yourself achieve it.
Plan Thoroughly- Naturally, failing to plan means planning to fail. How very easily you see people set out to execute a project without any form of planning. They simply think about the project, fantasize about their success without taking into consideration the tiny little bits of information that could be fatal to ignore. The fact is, more time and attention should be given to planning than to execution. This is what great achievers do. They go the extra mile, take the pain of going over and over every detail in the blue print to ensure they are in order but setting out. Planning for the great achievers may take almost forever only for the execution to be undertaken in a few minutes, hours or days. Ask the ace athlete. They put in hours and days and months of training only to run a 100m race in under 9 seconds.
Until you learn to go the extra mile in every thing you do your results will be anything but great. The choice is yours.
