Are You Ordinary or Extraordinary?
Mastery is an asymptote. What is an asymptote? It is a line that continually approaches a curve but does not meet at any finite distance.
So this line goes on forever getting closer and closer to the curve or the mark but never gets there. This is our potential. It is infinite. No matter how much we keep striving to get to that line we never reach it. However, if we strive to continuously reach that line, we push human potential further than it has ever been before. We continually push past what we think is possible.
Take the 4 minute mile for example. For a long time many people believed that running a 4 minute mile was impossible. Human physiology could not run that fast. Then one day in 1954 one man Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile time. Soon after he accomplished this thought to be impossible feat, multiple other athletes then did the same. They broke the 4 minute barrier as well. Since then the record has been broken over 1400 times by males and now stands at 3:43:13.
What changed? All of a sudden, we were able to accomplish this impossible feat of human physiology. What happened was is we changed our thinking. Immediately after Roger broke the record within days and weeks others accomplished the same feat. All of sudden human physiology evolved? No, our thinking changed. We listen to the stories that we tell ourselves. People believed for a long time that no one would ever run this fast. It was impossible. But someone believed that they could do it. They were so determined to do it. They believed it was possible.
If you want to do extraordinary things you must first start with your belief. If you believe it, you will achieve it, so the saying goes. This is a true statement. The problem is, our beliefs are created by our language. Our language can hold us back from creating our dreams.
Take the case of the 4 minute mile. Everyone was telling a story that it wasn’t possible. People were focusing on what they didn’t want to happen, what was not possible. Roger Bannister said It is possible and he would do it. He changed his language exclusively to focus on himself and what he could control. Instead of blaming human physiology for having limits. Day by day he kept telling himself this story. He kept believing that it was already true. He told himself this story so many times that eventually he made this story come true.
Once he broke the 4 minute mile others soon followed. Not because they were not already capable of it but because they didn’t believe it was possible themselves. Once Roger broke that barrier and showed everyone what was possible everyone was able to shift their thoughts and their language back to focusing on what they wanted to happen and in the land of possibility where anything could happen and superhuman performances came next.
If you want to do extraordinary things. Start with your language. Focus on the things you do want to happen. Focus on taking ownership of your story.
Victims are not in control of their story. They Externalized it. The put the reasons for their failure on someone else.
Heroes take ownership of their language and their story and take control of the things they can control.
What you put in you get out. Results come quickly when you focus on changing your language because when you focus your attention on what you do want, you begin to create a believable story. You begin to gain control of your life, and are in charge of writing your own story. This is where the magic happens. The more consistent and specific you get with your language, the sooner things start to fall in place.
Even if it is something crazy as running a 4 minute mile it will happen. In fact, I want you to believe in extraordinary things because that leads to an enjoyable life. Don’t settle for mediocre when you can be extraordinary.
