I felt compelled to share this. I listened to this on my way to work and it reminded me of few searing thoughts that I have formulated or learned along the way.
RAISE YOUR STANDARDS
I had posted about this before on my instagram acount, @yrajproductions. Incidentally YRaj Productions was my photography business. I realized later that I am much more passionate about inspiring, empowering and helping others, i.e. bring out the best in others.
I recall when I was in high school and my grades were mediocre. I was good in a few subjects where I excelled but others I gave a half-hearted effort and the results revealed this. Later in America, in college, the work was easy for me, given my British education and I only gave 40%. I didn’t do badly but I was nowhere near my potential, probably yielding results only a mother would find a way to speak positively about. This was my standard that I had adopted. Later at 30 years old, I was still without a BA degree due to some disastrous life events, along with almost certainly, a compromised standard. I went back to school with renewed vigor and a mission. In my classes, instead of being the youngest, as when I started, I was among the older students in my classes.
I decided that given that I was older, and late in the BA game, I had to graduate with honors. That would be the only way that, graduating with a BA degree at my age, would be commendable for me. As I made my way through the BA curriculum, I insisted on getting just As. In the interest of being very forthcoming, I did get a few Bs but in the end I graduated Cum Laude. All I had done was raise my standards. It is like shaking off the loser and becoming a winner as easy as that. It simply makes you into a different person.
BE OBSESSED IF YOU ARE SERIOUS
You have to become obsessed to live the life that pulls you towards your objective. For example, I had two goals, complete reading a book about investment and improve my golf handicap. After just 3 weeks, guess which one has had the most progress? Hint: it’s the one that I engaged in on my lunch break, looked at videos about it on my way to work, invested in myself, spending time after work almost daily. It was the golf handicap. I went from a handicap of 40 to 25 in 3 weeks, obsessively working on the weaknesses of my game. I did not have to push myself to do this, I was driven, I was pulled by the mission, to play better. I failed, I was discouraged, disappointed but yet I kept coming back, with a new attitude, new energy, new swing, new understanding. I was driven. The people at the top of their game are obsessed not only gifted and sometimes not even gifted.
WHAT YOU CAN MEASURE YOU CAN CHANGE
If you don’t keep a regular monitor of your performance, you cannot improve in a timely manner. This also serves to motivate you. Besides that it can encourage you to shift gears, go faster, go harder, to maintain progress. It also provides data for analysis which you can use to ensure you are being efficient, that your plan is the right plan, that it is working and how well it is. Understanding your progress keeps you connected to your goal which is important to keep your drive level high. It also provides a sense of ownership over the process, which keeps you focused and committed.
Enjoy this video from the master who says it better than I can.