Success impulse: Become extreme!
Let's say you want to have achieved something in the future that you don't have today. You may want to be someone you are not today (often a prerequisite for the former). Or you want to do more good than you do today. Or become financially free. Or sell significantly more. Or find your dream partner. Then here is my tip: Become extreme!
Become extreme! And especially in what you define as the benchmark. You don't even have to cite the usual "suspects" like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Richard Branson: Anyone who achieves significantly more than others in a given time has "extreme" standards in terms of what is possible.
Apply tougher standards
Most of us have learned from childhood to limit ourselves. This has advantages, of course, and is often a prerequisite for a comfortable life. The problem is that this same attitude prevents us from achieving truly outstanding things. In order to do so, we have to become much more demanding.
I keep repeating it: you can achieve much more if you apply tougher standards, especially to yourself.
Three areas where you can get "extreme"
Here are three areas you can start getting "extreme" with right away (in a positive sense, of course):
- Drawle. Do you want to grow by 5% or have 10% more customers? Then double down and change your goals to 10% growth and 20% more customers. Unrealistic? Sure, just like flying to the moon, the iPhone or inventing and mass producing a car. You've almost certainly experienced that you can achieve the seemingly "impossible" when it's a must.
- Learning. Listen to and read from experts who take a much more radical viewpoint than you do, especially when it feels totally uncomfortable ("That's way too American" is what I keep hearing). Want to attract more new customers? Then consume someone every day who is proven to win 10 new customers a day. Want a cutting-edge culture? Then study Zappos, Ritz Carlton, Virgin or Google, every day! Let this mindset become a daily part of your life.
- MutTry new things all the time, be it in leadership, marketing, sales or wherever. Be bold and step out of your famous comfort zone at least once a week (better: daily). For many, that's things like videos (yourself on camera), showing emotion as a leader, celebrating successes, and more.
I already know: 95% of my readers may read the points but will not apply them. The others are the ones who achieve outstanding things and change the world a bit. Are you there?
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch
