Do You Really Want to Be the Best? Here’s What it is Going to Take.

4 Steps That Make You Rise to the Top No Matter What Field You’re In

Become the best.

That’s great advice, but it’s vague. Being the best can mean many different things, especially depending on which field your in. If you want to be the best writer, what does being the best mean? If you want to be the best basketball player, what does being the best really mean? Even then, if you think you’ve become the best, who decides? There are ongoing debates in nearly every area of expertise about who the best really is.

While it can seem confusing, it doesn’t have to be. You can become the best, reach a level of potential you never thought possible, make a lot of money if you want, and leave a legacy of excellence. So, let’s dive in and see how to do this. Here are four steps to becoming the “best”.

1. Decide

As simple as this sounds, most people never commit to becoming the best. In fact, many people have trouble just starting. You cannot be a dabbler in something and hope to win the success lottery. You cannot “hack” your way to the top. You must decide to begin and take on the journey; because that’s exactly what it is – a journey.

You have to decide that you are going to put in the work. Getting to the top requires countless hours of “practice”, lots of failure (learning), and a willingness to leave the crowd behind. There are a lot of forces at play here, and without the right mindset, you’ll fall back into what feels secure and predictable. While there are guides to help you, the path to greatness is something you ultimately must forge for yourself. So, decide – actively choose that you are going to go “all in.”

2. Simplify

While it may seem appealing to pursue many different things and try to become great at all of them, one of the secrets of the highest performers in the world is that they choose one thing. That’s right. Look at any “expert” and you’ll discover that they spend most of their time in one area. While they may be adept at many things and it may appear they have many “branches on their tree”, at the core of who they are is one drive – one pursuit. This means you must get specific about what you are after. This may take some effort and discovery to figure out what it is, but once you find it – and you’ll know you found it – you must commit to it.

The other side to the coin of choosing something specific is to simplify by getting rid of distractions. That means you must stop time wasters. You must trade time that you spend on social media and games and trade it for practice at your goal. You must stop going after “get rich quick” ideas and go after true fulfillment. It also helps to de-clutter your life. Unsubscribe from and delete all those emails filling up your inbox. Clean out your house and sell all your junk. Create a clean, simple environment where creativity and discipline can thrive.

3. Create Necessity

Motivation is not what you need to become the best. What you need is necessity. It is that drive within you that looks at a huge goal, not as a great idea that would be nice to accomplish, but as something that is absolutely necessary to achieve.

You will reach a point when motivation fades and you find yourself in the grind. The excitement has waned, the reality of that lofty goal seems far away, and it’s now time to put in the deep work. What is going to keep you going? What is going to prevent you from deciding to drop your pursuit and start something else? There has to be a need within you to keep going. So what is it? What place within you needs to be awakened to say, “I’m going to do this – no matter what”? And why? That’s what you must find. One way to do this is to tie your identity to your success.

Necessity tells you that anything is achievable, because it has to be achieved. There’s the age old idiom – “necessity is the mother of invention”, and it’s true. When something becomes absolutely necessary, you find a way. You do what seems impossible. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you give yourself no other options but achievement.

4. Pursue Excellence

When you are operating at the top of your field, you move beyond the basic foundational ideas and beliefs about your field of interest, and move more into an area of innovation. At some point along the way, you cannot compare yourself to your competition anymore. You cannot pursue the same ideas as everyone else. You must not fall victim to whatever is “good enough”. You must pursue excellence.
In order to do this, you must first believe you can improve. The reality is, there is no point when you’ve reached the top and there is no more mountain to climb. The mountain of excellence is never ending. That’s why this blog is called Eventual Expert. No matter how adept and proficient you become, you must take the approach that “eventual” never actually becomes “now.” This is not a bad thing. When you shift your approach from “good enough” to mastery, the real pursuit becomes less about other’s opinions and more about mastering yourself.

That’s the beauty of excellence. Becoming the best is not really about outperforming others in your field, although it is often required – especially in athletics. At this point in the journey, it becomes about outperforming yourself. You can’t really pursue mastery while living a life of comparison. That’s a trap. Your only real competition is yourself.