Every High Achiever's #1 Skill

Have you ever wondered what you may be missing out on, in order to enjoy the success, you desire to achieve in life?

Or maybe, like I’ve done in the past, you wonder what the missing “key” ingredient to better results really is?

Before we get to the meat of this Wisdom Wednesday, let me share a brief lesson from my past.

For too long in my younger years, I thought there must be some “perfect” place to live and raise a family - some sort of utopia, if you will.

After many moves (now 22 in our 30 years of marriage) and living in 8% of the 50 U.S. states (that’s four states for anyone who doesn’t like math), I eventually learned (yes, I’m a slow learner at times) that although some places are certainly better to live in than others, there is no “magical” place or “perfect” place to live this side of heaven.

I also learned that the old saying is true, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, but rather on whichever side you choose to water it.

Success in our health, in our marriage, or in our business is not typically a matter of finding the perfect workout, perfect meal plan, perfect spouse (since nobody’s perfect anyway), or even the perfect business (even though I do think our business is quite special).

Although there are certainly better workout programs, better ways to eat, better spouses and better business than others, assuming we have a good one, it’s more about being consistent each day to “water” our health, our marriage, our business (and, of course, our lawns) so that they all grow stronger and healthier over time.

I used to think successful people had some insider knowledge or special extraordinary things they did. What I’ve learned is that even though some do something extraordinary in some cases, most of the time those are the exceptions.

What I’ve discovered both from learning from other successful people as well as from my own experience, is that for most people who are successful in anything, their real key to success is not doing extraordinary things, but rather doing ordinary things extraordinarily consistently.

Said another way, successful people do consistently what others do occasionally.

Just as we can't get fit working out for 10 hours straight 3 times a month or get healthy by going on a crash diet for 10 days, or expect a healthy, thriving marriage by spending only one week a year with our spouse and ignoring them the remainder of the year, we must not expect success in our business without consistent daily actions moving us one step closer to our vision and goals.

This week, as we will hopefully do every week, let’s each give some extra attention to being consistent each day in those things that we know will be the stepping stones to move us one step closer to our goals.

If we do that, getting even the slightest bit better each day, that is success!

Until next time, this is Allan Blain. Make it a great one!