5 Things Everyone Must Do to Become Extraordinary
“Extraordinary” looks different for everyone.
One person’s version of success might not even matter to someone else. That’s OK. Not everyone’s end goal looks the same.
However, there are several characteristics of becoming extraordinary that are true to everyone. There are principles that must be followed, and cannot be bypassed.
The results can be anything, but the rules to get there are the same for everyone.
1. You Must Constantly Be Improving Yourself.
“Success is continuously improving who you are, how you live, how you serve, and how you relate.” -Benjamin P. Hardy
No one becomes extraordinary without an intense commitment to constant self-improvement and personal development.
There are four main areas of improvement to focus on: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It’s extremely difficult to achieve success in any isolated area while ignoring other areas.
You probably won’t experience lasting spiritual breakthroughs if you don’t care about your health or body; it’s unlikely you’ll cultivate new mental habits if you continue to engage in toxic emotional relationships.
“Every day, check these four boxes: have I improved 1% on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health?” -James Altucher
What you focus on, expands. If you make a commitment to personal development, even slow growth, it will begin to affect every other area of your life.
How you do one thing is how you do everything. Once you begin to make a positive change in one area, every other area begins to heal and grow.
This is the cycle to becoming extraordinary. Extraordinary individuals have a deep connection with all four of these areas, and consistent improvement is needed in every area.
Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education, constructive criticism, and learning.
2. You Must Leave the Comfort and Security of the “Majority.”
Most of the world will never be successful.
Evolving is painful. Achieving lasting success and becoming an extraordinary version of yourself can’t happen in the safe, comfortable environment most people live in.
If you want to become extraordinary, that has certain requirements: it means severing ties with toxic individuals. It means a lowered tolerance for crappy food, foolish spending, low-quality tasks, and wasting time on unimportant things.
Most people aren’t willing to pay the price. They’d rather continue living in the big, safe crowd — even if that means trading in their dreams.
The majority is a safe, comfortable place for individuals who wish to avoid pain and discomfort.
In the words of Seth Godin: “The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.”
The majority has a high price for membership: it often requires members to trade their dreams for the safety it offers.
If anyone wants to be extraordinary, they must leave this comfort. The cost for achieving success is high, and the road is fraught with pain, discomfort, and looking foolish in the eyes of others.
Greatness lies at the top of the mountain; you’ll never reach it if you never leave the city.
The extraordinary life isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK. Not everyone wants to pay the price.
But if you want to be extraordinary, you can’t achieve this by remaining with individuals who limit you and hold you back on your journey.
3. Your Days Must Be Filled With Only High-Quality Core Tasks.
“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” -Jim Collins, Good to Great
Being ordinary requires little effort.
Ordinary means binge-watching TV.
Ordinary means long, mindless commutes where you allow your brain to zone out and forget the past 40 minutes.
Ordinary means doing things you don’t want to do, because you weren’t responsible or brave enough to say “no.”
On the other hand, being extraordinary requires enormous effort. It requires you to fill your time with high-quality tasks, like solving difficult problems, reading, taking care of your body/health, and engaging in deep work for massive results.
You can’t do this if you’re constantly spending $36 for 3 drinks at a bar throughout the week with coworkers and colleagues who are in the same rut as you.
You can’t do this if you always sleep in, stay up late watching TV, and squander your time on obligations you don’t even like.
Being extraordinary costs your time, attention, energy, and focus. Most people are spread too thin to achieve this. Most of their energy is spent on email, social media, complaining, watching TV, and numbing out through overconsumption of drugs, alcohol, porn, the news, or anything else that seeks to distract.
If you want to be extraordinary, you must spend the bulk of your time on high-quality tasks that bring you closer to your specific goals.
“Success isn’t one step in 20 directions. Success is 20 steps in one direction.” -Benjamin Hardy
4. You Must Be Unapologetically Committed To Your Values.
“To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
It’s rare to find someone of “principles.”
These people are rare partly because sticking to your principles is so difficult when you live in the environment of the majority.
It’s unusual to drink in moderation. It’s uncommon to never binge on television. It’s almost unheard-of to wake up early and stay up late while you work on being healthier, smarter, and more emotionally healed.
Everyone has values. But most people’s values aren’t a rock-solid priority. Put a few drinks in them, or get them tired and hungry, and anything can happen.
To be extraordinary, you must be unapologetically committed to your values.
If people don’t like your values, or your values rub them the wrong way — too bad. That’s their problem.
You can’t break your rules for anybody.
The world is in a constant effort to distract you from what’s most important — family. Friends. Your passion. Your beliefs. Your legacy.
You can never achieve true, lasting success if you keep breaking your own rules and setting aside your values for the endless scenarios the world throws at you.
Be unapologetic. Be concrete. Be absolutely committed.
No. Matter. What.
This is how people develop an “abundance mindset” and ignore everyone else panicking around them that “there won’t be enough to go around.” This is how couples stay happily married while most of their friends are getting divorced.
This is how ordinary people become extraordinary.
“Only a select few people ever grow consciously beyond their own needs.
Only a select few develop convictions strong enough to give their lives for.
Only a select few will commit to something with such force that they are willing to transform themselves to uphold that commitment.”
-Benjamin Hardy
5. You Must Only Follow Your Specific Definition of Success — No One Else’s.
In the words of Srinivas Rao:
At some point, I realized that I had to give up other people’s definition of success. This is one of the most difficult things to give up because it is so deeply embedded in our cultural narratives that it becomes the standard by which we measure our lives. Even as entrepreneurs we have collectively agreed that fame and fortune are the markers of success.
But, giving up other people’s definition of success is incredibly liberating and ultimately leads to the fullest expression of who you are and what matters to you. It’s not a one-time thing. It’s a daily habit of comparing less and creating more.
“Success” isn’t just about making money and having nice “things.” Many people with enormous wealth and fame live terribly unbalanced, miserable lives.
Yet society continues to push this definition of success towards anyone who will listen. According to the world’s message, if you’re not rich and famous, you’re not successful.
Everyone has their own agenda, to an extent. Even loved ones like friends and family might give you the wrong advice out of a good intention to keep you “safe” from failure or disappointment.
No one can define your success but you. If you continue to let others tell you what success is, you’ll never reach it. Even if you did, it wouldn’t be a true success, because it’s not what you really valued.
When you really think about it, is getting a huge Twitter following really that important? Will having a million dollars really make you feel fulfilled? Is owning an expensive wardrobe to impress others really what will make you happy?
Probably not.
Success must be yours. Only you know what that is; the world can’t tell you. No one can.
You must work towards your personal definition of success. No one else’s.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, living an extraordinary life is a journey you must make yourself. I can’t tell you what it will look like.
But I can tell you what it will require. Transforming from ordinary to extraordinary costs the same for everyone. It involves narrowing down your life to only consist of what really matters. It means giving up your safety nets and comfortable lives to achieve something more.
It means giving up what is good for what is great.
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