Talent and Greatness

It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and point to the people in the arena, stating the advantages they had in their pursuits of greatness, while we, the less fortunate, were forced to just sit and watch their ascension.

The truth is, despite the certain advantages some people are born with (location, genetics, timing) , every one of us has the ability to study greatness and apply it to our own lives. Those 1440 daily minutes given to each of us can be used to make you better, or make you worse. You win or lose each day.

I started a new book today called The Talent Code, where author Daniel Coyle gets down to what actually creates greatness. He directly states (in the title) that greatness is not born, it’s grown. While this is only the first day of the book, I’m hooked. So far, the mix of scientific data and real-life example is just right.

The takeaway for today ties into that “uncomfortability” we talk about all the time. The greats, Coyle mentions, all have a habit of consistently pushing themselves to just beyond their capability, making errors, correcting those errors and then moving forward. It’s not rocket science, but it is science. I won’t bore you with the Myelin Sheath/neuro talk, as I barely understood it myself, but I can promise you the other 99% of today’s reading was spot on. To be great, you’ve got to consistently put yourself in an uncomfortable state AND objectively assess/improve your errors.

If you’re obsessed with greatness, strap in and follow along for the next few weeks (or less). I’ll be posting daily blogs (written and audio) here on my site and on A Fighter’s Mindset – The Spaniard Podcast. Subscribe and win your day…every day.

Listen to today’s AM Excellence “Talent and Greatness” here.