Everybody wants to have amazing results, but not everybody is willing to pay the price of the amazing results. Everyone would love to earn more money, but not everyone is willing to put in all that it takes. The world is filled with more wishing and fewer grinding. If you want to be in the league of the top 10%, you need to set yourself apart and deliberately differentiate yourself. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
If you want to be at the top of your chosen career or industry, it will be because you have chosen to stand out, and differentiate yourself.
How do I differentiate myself? You ask, by taking a different path from the norm. By going all-in when others are coming out, by taking a higher risk, by being more responsible, by adding more focus and effort. Let me share a few key things with you, that can help you differentiate yourself.
1. Be grateful when others are complaining. Trust me, murmurers and complainers are in the majority. You will not be special or different for complaining. If you however do a gratitude challenge, it will not only make you different, it will bring interesting things and people your way. Dare to differentiate yourself this way, find the good behind every gesture and be thankful and grateful. Don’t be the person who receives a good gesture and is thankless, go out of your way to show gratitude for every gift of favour.
2. Keep your eyes on the required process, when others are focused on results. There is nothing that makes people burn out faster than a result focus. If you are focusing on results and the results are not happening on time, you will be tempted to quit and burn out. If you however focus on your process and keep at it whether results show or not, you will be there when the results will finally come.
3. Persevere when others are quitting. People find it easy to start something, hop and go. No staying power, no stick-to-it-iveness. One of the ways you can easily differentiate yourself is to be a long-term, long-haul person. Regularly ask yourself what will happen if you can keep at what you are doing for the next 10 to 20 years? Think deeper, ask what the implication of what you are doing can be in the next 50 to 100 years. Wise people evaluate their investments over the lifespan of their children’s children.
4. Go two miles where one mile is ok. Many people are comfortable doing the minimum to get by. It’s an interesting adage that says following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked. Doing less is normal, doing just adequate is above average, and to find people who go ahead and do more than is required, that’s rare. If you want to distinguish yourself, you must be willing to take the extra mile where one is required. You must be willing to give more value per time than you are rewarded for. Many people detest doing things without compensation, you, even when you are compensated, do more that is uncompensated for.
If you live like this, you will steep the world’s systems in your favour. You will get yourself noticed when others are getting passed by, you will be a leader, you will be a champion, you will not be ignored or overlooked. If you deliberately invest in these, you will command more value than is normal, and it’s only a time, life itself will differentiate you.
People don’t get born with magic, we make our magic here by standing above the pull of mediocrity.
