Stepping up

The Ground Floor

It’s hard to judge when you are are doing a good job and when you are not. When you are mediocre, or when you are excelling.

We struggle to objectively evaluate ourselves in any situation. We just can’t seem to be able to extract the good data from the noise, from the other things going on in our lives, from our racing stream of thoughts.

To make things harder, performance is relative. What does ‘doing well’ even mean? Doing better than a colleague? Better than the industry average? Better than some arbitrary level we think up & judge ourselves by?

And this relativity kills our potential. We look to the left & right, always trying to benchmark ourselves to others around us. With wealth. Status. Career.

Our world shrinks. We pat ourselves on the back because we think we are doing well, just because we are surrounded by a sea of poor performance or mediocrity.

Stepping Up

But in order to radically improve your life, you can’t look at those around you. You must step up.

You must take a long, hard look at yourself & take your thinking up a level.

How are you doing objectively? Are you maximising your capabilities? Are you innovating? Are you just ‘another one of them’?

Starting a business that looks the same as the guy next door. With the same business model. The same value proposition. The same concept.

Are you copying what’s around you, or are you thinking deeply about the objective truth?

Because when you do what everyone else does, it tends not to work. You end up in a scrap to the bottom. You lower your prices to compete. You out-work the competition.

You don’t create the life you started on this path for.

So step up with your thinking, with your actions, with your bravery.

To be remarkable, to be special, you must be inherently different from everyone around you. Make your value proposition different. Make the way you propose ideas different. The way you interact. Your principles.

Pursue truth, rather than norms. Let others do the standard email marketing. The price competition. Let them wear the suit & the artificial accoutrements of success.

Be remarkable. Be bold in your pursuit of the best solution, the best idea. Be confident. Be persistent. It’s harder to do & the pay-off will come later, but it’s worth the investment.