5 Tips to Go From Good to Great

Learning a new skill is hard enough but learning a skill in which one desires to achieve greatness; well, that can seem impossible at times.

Somewhere along this journey towards greatness, you are guaranteed to find yourself in a space of just being bad at whatever it is you’re doing. Often times, the period of being that bad is quick as it is due to your overall lack of knowledge as opposed to a lack of ability (more knowledge = less badness). Soon, you’ll even grow out of being bad and move into the category of being good at this new skill. And that’s where we get stuck!

To state the obvious: no one enjoys being bad at things. However, it has been researched and proven that going through this period of bad is a vital prerequisite in order for us to obtain greatness. Whether it is credited to the level of energy put in while learning this new skill or credited to one of the myriads of other options… it’s simply a fact.

Let’s utilize a very simple continuum of success: there is a section of bad for us to learn in, there is a large runway of good for us to exist within, and there is distant goal of great for us to set our sights on achieving. Many of us aim to be good at the things we do. It doesn’t matter if we do these things daily or we do them sporadically; we just want to be good at doing them. However, there is a subgroup within us that desire to be great!

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I understand for this group of humans to have an odd appreciation for the agony caused by the journey because it is known that the possibility of true delight due to reaching your goals may sit on the other side. That alone is typically the differentiator between those who want to be great versus those who put forth effort to be great. And for those of us who may need a few highlights of what this journey will look like, here are 5 key tips and takeaways of the good-to-great pathway you are on:

The gap between being bad at something and being good at something is relatively small.

In large part, this is because you will improve at anything you spend time doing repetitively. For example, if you’ve never gotten on a snowboard, then you will likely fall your first time coming down the mountain (and fall a heck of a lot). With that, if you stopped trying to snowboard after your first time down the hill, then you will end your snowboarding in the bad category. Think about it: if you’ve never stood on a snowboard then your first time attempting to do so should be a bit rocky. So, yes, everyone is expecting you to be bad at first! However, if you get up after each fall and go back up the mountain time and time again, then you will become good enough to make it all the way down the mountain without falling. Additionally, you’ll never again have to learn how to clip into the snow boots for the first time, because you’ve officially mastered that part of this process. You may not be capable (yet) to sign up for the upcoming Winter X Games, but you could at least enjoy a full day of carving the mountain and leave with a sense of accomplishment.?

Being good at something creates the disillusion of contentment.?

Once you learn the basics of a skill, it is easy to believe the false narrative that you’ll more easily pick up the advance aspects of that same tasks. Let’s stick with snowboarding, you’ve completed your first run down the mountain it was full of tumbles but your last run for the day included you going down the mountain without falling and you’re even able to come to a complete stop at the bottom without falling… you’re probably on cloud 9 and ready to sign some autographs. If you were to completely stop your journey of improving as a snowboarder then you will always be able to get down the mountain with your friends and enjoy yourself each time you go out, but you still won’t be ready to sign up for the X Games. Within the bad-to-good phase of learning you were expected to successfully put on your snow boots. Now, in the much longer good-to-great phase of learning, instead of learning how to put on your shoes, you’ll need to learn how to jump from a ramp at high speeds. Obviously, this was impossible on your first day, but it seems more realistic now that you have a better understanding of the skill. If you become content with knowing that you can learn how to do tricks if you wanted to, then you may never actually try and you may rest within your contentment of what is possible. This is a dangerous phase of learning that will require you to exhibit a sharp sense of awareness about yourself. Speaking of…?

Good ain’t good enough.?

Within this phase of obtaining greatness, one must take a theoretical step back and review where and how improvement is needed. At this time, if you are not comfortable being accountable then you may not be able to push through it. YOU must identify that being good really isn’t that good at all and YOU have to want more. At that point you will be able to accurately assess yourself and your abilities. Your learning process goes from being manufactured for you to your being able to dictate what and how you learn the next phase of this new skill. To put it differently, you have to make a conscious decision to seek out how to break pass the plateau of goodness and continue to climb upwards towards greatness.

Great things often occur within an ecosystem of greatness.?

No one becomes great on their own. You must be surrounded by the right environment to reach your peak. This ecosystem of greatness will look different for each person but it certainly does exists for each person. It will be a combination of your desire to be great, having the resources needed to be great, investing the time to be great, and so much more. This is where you must decide if you are obsessed about achieving this greatness and if you are willing to do what it takes to achieve it. Find a mentor that challenges you and helps you better understand your failures. Find a coach that explains new concepts to you in a way that is easily digestible. Surround yourself with people who have the same energy and ambition as you. One of the more certain facts about striving for greatness is that you won’t be able to do it if you are focusing too much energy on the countless barriers that can keep you from achieving your goal—your ecosystem will provide you with a constant reminder of what is possible, past those barriers.

Consistency is key.

Just like it is easy to become better at something you do repetitively, it is also easy to lose some of your skills by not continuing to sharpen the tools you have at your disposal. This will mean you have to push through moments where you want to quit because it takes too much effort to be great. Moments when you are frustrated because you aren’t great yet. Moments when you see others are further along their greatness journey than you are currently. And with all that, keep at it! The only way it takes less effort in the future is by putting in more effort now. The only way for you to be better today than yesterday is by working at it harder today than you did yesterday. And the only way you’ll catch those ahead of you is by continuously running in that direction… forward.

Before going any further, I find it important to identify that greatness is not a thing to be achieved and then you get to move on to becoming great at other tasks. Certainly, you can be great at more than one thing, but you have to continue working at that task to maintain your expertise. The commonly known study by Malcolm Gladwell that highlighted the need for 10,000 hours of intensive practice in order to become a master of any skill only talks about what it takes to be great. This article aims to additionally help you understand what it takes to be good, so you can identify when a shift may be needed for continued growth. Since the release of Gladwell’s point of view of this study in 2008, many others have tried to find a shortcut to achieve the same results. While no one has successfully found said shortcut, some have stated that this time commitment can be shortened to just 20 hours’ worth of your time if you simply change one expectation: accept being good and give up on being great.

Nah.?

We are here for one thing and one thing only, and that is greatness! Over here, we proudly aim for the moon and make sure we take detailed notes if we land amongst the stars (and then we get back on our magical unicorn and aim for the moon again).

Good luck in achieving your dreams. Great luck in reaching your destiny!