you must strive to become better every day
Becoming a better version of ourselves is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a renewed commitment that we make every day. Most of us look for a magic bullet — a radical change — that will help us alleviate our stresses, worries and obstacles. We all want instant gratification and most of us look for secrets, hacks, tricks and shortcuts to make everything in our life better right now. But unfortunately this is not how things happen in life. Progress and improvement takes time. As much as we’re seduced by the notion of ‘overnight success,’ it doesn’t exist. All the people that we admire and look up to have spent years, even decades, mastering their craft. They did not become successful by one giant leap, but they took small, simple and consistent steps over time.
Growth takes time. It takes years for an acorn to turn into an oak tree. Personal growth and success takes time. And the same applies in our professional life as well. As Stephen Covey said, “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” We need to let go of our microwave mentality and our pursuit of insta-results. The world, people and media glamorize success but the truth — that every successful person would attest to — is that the path towards greater success is hard, long, and sometimes boring, mundane and unexciting. In their respective journeys, they face failures, disappointments, and loneliness but they keep working hard and continue with their commitment towards their craft and their mission.
The road to becoming extraordinary and living an exceptional life demands us to constantly work harder and smarter. We can’t wish our way to success, we need to take aligned actions every day and do the actual work. As Mike Murdock puts it, “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.” There’s no one quick fix to attaining a successful and happy life. We can’t Thanos-snap (or Iron Man-snap) our pressing problems, sorrows, and obstacles and have them turn into dust and disappear from our lives. We need to put in the work. The only way is through walking the hard and long route and keep getting better, even just a little bit, every single day. In his book The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy instructs us how small, insignificant actions when done consistently can lead to huge rewards. He mentions the formula:
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
Instead of trying to make monumental changes in a short period of time, we can capitalize on the magic of compounding and make small improvements every day leading us to the changes that we wanted to bring in our life in the first place. As Brett and Kate McKay of The Art of Manliness point out, “Instead of trying to make radical changes in a short amount of time, just make small improvements every day that will gradually lead to the change you want. Each day, just focus on getting 1% better in whatever it is you’re trying to improve. That’s it. Just 1%. It might not seem like much, but those 1% improvements start compounding on each other. In the beginning, your improvements will be so small as to seem practically nonexistent. But gradually and ever so slowly, you’ll start to notice the improvements in your life. It may take months or even years, but the improvements will come if you just focus on consistently upping your game by 1%.”
Most of us believe that our education ends when we graduate from college or university. But in order to live a life that reflects exceptionalism, we need to commit to lifelong learning. We need to feed our minds and flush out the negativity and toxicity that accumulates within us with positive, uplifting and inspirational information. Like success, personal development and self-improvement is a never ending journey too. As we develop ourselves every single day, our success, our impact and our income grows as well. We are able to join the elite and become successful in the truest sense.
I have some great news for now. My new podcast Daily Success is live, and I invite you to join me in this journey of daily self-development and mastery.
My chief aim with this short-form podcast is to present to you key ideas and insights rooted in personal development, philosophy and holistic success, as well as share with you helpful tools and strategies, in simple and to the point episodes. I highly value your time and attention, and that’s why I want this podcast to be a source of meaningful information, education and inspiration that you can tune to for a few minutes every weekday.
You can listen and subscribe to Daily Success here.
Let’s embark on this exhilarating and never-ending journey of personal development together and let’s wholeheartedly commit to becoming a little better every single day. It’s showtime!