Nicolas Cole
Here’s how you stop being average:
When you wake up in the morning and need to brush your teeth, and you have that thought, “Oh, I should actually floss too,” then floss.
When you go to make yourself breakfast and you have that thought, “Oh, I said I was going to eat healthier,” make the healthy choice instead of the unhealthy one.
When you go to head to train for work and you have the choice between taking the stairs or the escalator, and you hear that voice in your head that says, “Oh, I said I was going to be more physically active,” take the stairs.
When you get into work and you sit down in front of your first task, and you have that thought, “Oh, I said I was going to work on being more productive,” turn off all distractions and get to work—instead of browsing Facebook, for example.
When you leave work and you’re exhausted and you have that thought, “Oh, I said I was going to work on my book this week,” don’t go to the bar. Go home and work on your book.
When you get ready for bed and you feel like winding down, and you have that thought, “I said I was going to read more instead of watching so much Netflix,” pick up a book instead of opening a web browser.
Being average is a choice—that’s what a lot of people don’t understand.
You know what you need to do. And a tiny, faint voice in your head reminds you of what you need to do, or what you had said you were going to do, a lot more often than you might realize.
Start listening to that voice.
Start choosing what you “need” to do more often than you fall back into the habit of doing what you “want” to do.
Greatness, then, is nothing more than a daily practice.
Nelson Wang
1. Learn to persevere
My 2nd Quora post has 366 views. My 6th Quora post has 98,000 views. My 13th Quora post has 548,000 views.
My first book sold less than 50 copies. My second book has over 40,000 Kindle downloads.
I had to make 14 iPhone apps just to get to 4 that made the top 100 in different categories
Everyone sucks in the beginning. It’s what you do after the beginning that counts.
2. Find 5 awesome people crushing it in life
Spend time with those people. You are who you spend your time with. Awesomeness is contagious.
3. Find your purpose
Purpose will fuel your motivation
Imagine waking up every day excited for you’ve set out to accomplish. That passion alone will propel you to the next level.
4. Take action now
Getting started is half the battle. Just focus on getting started. The inertia will keep you going.
5. Understand the value of time
Your time here is so freaking valuable. Do you really want to look back one day and ask “what if?”
Better to look forward and to say “what’s possible?”
Most people don’t push themselves to be better than average mainly because they never have a sense of urgency. Understanding the value of time changes that.
Life is short. Make the most out of your time here.
Ara Mambreyan
I was “average” five years ago.
I woke up each day wishing I was someone else.
I wished that I was smarter. I wished that I was more successful. I wished that I was more physically fit.
One day, I STOPPED wishing and started acting.
Image Credit: Ara Mambreyan
Since then, I have managed to
Win 6 International Science Olympiad medals
Win 5 National Basketball Championships, being a starter.
Get awarded twice by the President of Armenia.
Got admitted to the University of Cambridge.
I am not saying this to brag; a lot of people, seeing this list, mistakenly assume that “I am a genius.”
I am not…
I AM NOT A GENIUS!
I wasn’t born solving integrals! I wasn’t born with amazing basketball drills! I wasn’t writing articles at the age of two!
I just chose to work hard. I chose to find my inner strength and fight.
I failed countless of times in my life. The list is far longer than the above, believe me. It’s not easy… It isn’t easy NOT being average.
But it’s a choice. Do you choose to be average or do you choose to be something else? It’s YOU who has to decide this.
It’s fine being average. Most people are. Some of them are happy.
But you have to choose for yourself! And, when you do, prepare to work hard, be self-disciplined, believe in yourself and never, NEVER, give up!
That’s the uphill battle to success. And when you reach the top, and people tell you that “you are a genius”, you will know that geniuses are not born. They are made…
Make your own way. Beat the odds. Find your inner strength. FIGHT!
Via Quora