How to achieve greatness?
Behavior change, reaching objectives, overcoming barriers or anything related to these might be considered daily challenges for most of us, but this can become easier if we accept the reality and embrace the challenges that will come.
The most common situation that I’ve noticed is that most people set huge goals or decisions for their lives in a short period of time, such as losing 14 kilos in 4 months, running a marathon in less than 1 year of trainning, start triathlon to do a full Ironman or even start a business immediately without any plans or researches. The issue here is that you are starting from scratch and trying to reach that far objective as fast as you can avoiding or disconsidering any type of barriers like bad days, disappointments and mistakes.
We are living in a society where everybody appears to be better and happier than you, and that achieving goals seems to be pretty easy, but in real life things are not like this, it involves a lot of struggle, sweat, blood and tears, and if people tell you that things are easier than you think, they are lying to you.
A few things must be considered while setting goals or facing challenges and barriers, first of them is to Think Like a Ship, because ships don’t change their directions so fast or in a abrupt way, every decision is well though and made in small degree adjustments in its direction and speed. To turn or to stop a ship you must think about it way before doing it and execute it in small steps until it really happens. Thinking like that you can consider that the small actions in your life will drive you to change and to achieve your objectives, small actions like waking up early, choosing the right food, or dedication at least 30 minutes or 1 hour of your day to studying can really change your life path. What is 1 hour of study compared to at least 3 hours of social media wasted during the day? Chose What is Right!
Embrace the Suck! Stop expecting that life will get better or easier, accept that life is a fight regardless of what you are doing, start building mental toughness and get stronger to face all adversities that will be thrown in your way. If you want to achieve success nothing will be or ever get easier.
“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – John F. Kennedy
Eagles don’t fly with pigeons. Have you ever thought if the people around you are telling you good things? Or are they just putting more negativity and barriers to discourage yourself be the your best version? Surround yourself with people that will unleash who you are capable of.
Set Small Goals. Try to do the basics before doing the most outrageous accomplishment, why thinking about doing an Ironman or a Marathon if you don’t even run three times a week? First you must adapt your mind and body for a new routine, it’s easier to accomplish running once a week and then increasing to twice and then to three times. Remember that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, and it must fit inside your routine that is already full of tasks, that’s reason we must always Prioritize and Execute.
If you define big and outrageous goals, it will be easier to quit since it feels to be so far away from what you can do at this moment.
Take small steps every day toward your goals and don’t stop for any reason, only like this you will achieve greatness.
Picture: Took this photo of FDNY Engine 54 / Ladder 4 / Battalion 9 and it’s amazing flags remembering some of their roots and the fallen heroes.