The other day, I watched a TV series called “Medium”. The main character, Joe Dubois, got a new job. His new boss was a kind of genius who does things on his own. When Joe joined the company, his colleague told him that they would do the job only when his boss assigned him to do. He seldom did. So, that evening, Joe went to see his boss. He asked if there was anything he could do. The boss asked if anyone told him his working style. He explained that his division was basically his own work and he normally worked things out by himself. He hired people just because he wanted to keep his head counts. His division would maintain getting the expenditure budget. In case, one day he might need it.

Joe still wanted to show his initiatives. The next day, Joe sent out his works to his boss. That evening, he asked him if he saw it. The boss said he saw it. And he said it was not bad. “But frankly, it is not excellent.” He said to Joe. “I don’t do anything but excellent.” Then he told Joe that he would be miserable in his division because he was better than others. Joe should be in a better place than being in his division and doing nothing. So, he organized to swap Joe with someone in other division which has something valuable for Joe to do.

What struck me were the boss’ words. “I don’t do anything but excellent”. In life, if you want success, you must outrank other people. You must be very good at what you do. This is how the word “excellent” comes into play. You may say that being excellent is difficult. You are right. Success is not that easy. If you need to achieve high and meaningful goals, you will have to pay the price.

So, how are you going to be excellent on what you do? It is simple but it is not easy. Firstly, decide to do the best you can. The best you can may not be excellent at the first time. It may not even be right. It can fail. But that is OK. As long as you do your best, you will get better next time.

Brian Tracy used to ask his students in one of his course. He asked if they know how many times people try to do things before they give up. The answer was less than one. It means that most people don’t even try to do anything when they know what they have to do. The first step is to start. Then you will have to imagine that you will keep doing it and improving it until you succeed.

So, do the best you can! Plan to aim for being excellent. Make it your habit. As mentioned in another hit series, House MD. Dr House taught his student s that they had only three choices in life. Be good, get good or give up. In short, there is no other choice but being good or excellent in what you do.

If you settle for mediocrity, failure is all you have left to fall on. True success can only be reached when you dig deep and realize that “Mediocrity is NOT an option”. Keeping this in mind, we should always strive to achieve and get the most out of life that we possibly can. Its only when we “Reach for the Stars” and push ourselves can we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Self-discipline is the single most important key to success in life. By pushing yourself harder and harder every day and never giving up, you will be surprised at what you are capable of achieving. I like to call this the “Reach for the Stars”.

While almost everyone I’ve ever met wished for success in what they did, very few actually pushed themselves that little extra bit in order to achieve their goals and dreams. This is the problem that we face every day. Not that many of us have pushed that extra bit. How well you succeed is all about how bad you want the success, what it means to you, are you willing to succeed a little or are you willing to go the whole way and beyond to achieve a higher status and be outstanding?

When starting in life we all start out with the best intentions. Just like running hurdles but, many of us quit and fall back after the first hurdle. We don’t push ourselves as hard as we should. We stop and take breaks to catch our breath and by the time we’re ready to “GO” we finish second or third place at best. Don’t wonder what it would have been like if you gave your all from the start. Give your all starting now!

Those who know what its like to win in life and who are on that “winning streak” knows what that little extra push can give them. That little extra push gets these people in front of their competitors. This is what it takes to end up with the glory and true success in life.

I know all successful people don’t rely just on that extra push. All successful people have strategies and are willing to be flexible on their way to the next step. When your successful you don’t stop at the first hurdle you accept that its there jump it and keep moving!

Yesterday, I got headache without the real reason. I checked out with my plan and found out that I was far behind the schedule. I thought this may be the cause of my illness. It was not serious but it makes me feel uncomfortable. Then, I thought about the past event which I felt similarly. I think it must have been because of the fear. I had strong feeling of the fear. This fear of failure really bothered me. Then, I picked up the phone and talked to a friend of mine.

This friend gave me some comments on the fear. His explanation was that human had fear especially for the upcoming events because some of the factors were not congruent. The factors include:

1 The intelligence

This is his higher level of conscious mind which has set up the good goal and want to achieve it. This is a good voice in your head and mainly leads you to do the right things.

2 The normal mind

People have a lot of reasons to do things and not doing things. They change the way they think and do according to the situation. Normally, this part of the mind is control by your belief and past experience.

3 The subconscious mind

This is what hides behind your conscious mind. You don’t know what it thinks but it shows in your guts and feeling.

4 The behavior

This is what you do. The three parts of your mind make you do things the way they want.

When one or two of the above factors are not congruent, you will feel uncertain. You will have fear although you tried to think that you are certain to get good result. Your mind can tell if you are lying or you are really going to get what you want.

Here is how you are going to win the fear. You will need solid goals. You will have to be sure in what you want. If your goals are not clear, you will have fear. Set up SMART goals and then develop good plan. If you have both and you are sure about your path, you can eliminate the fear.