How to Become Great

Setting the Path

Do what you love. Becoming great at anything will require a considerable amount of hard work, and if you aren't pursuing something you can get passionate about, your motivation for continuing will likely fade away before you can achieve the greatness you seek. No matter what skill you seek to improve, you will experience hardships, and you will probably feel discouraged when those hardships pop up. If your love for your goal doesn't exceed your level of discouragement at that time, there's a good chance you won't muster the motivation to work past that point.

Set realistic goals. It's easy to get discouraged when things go wrong. Mistakes and setbacks are inevitable, but you can avoid unnecessary troubles by setting goals that are achievable and otherwise logistically possible. Expecting something to be easy is the worst expectation you can ever hold. When things are more difficult than you were planning on, you're more likely to find yourself frustrated and tempted to quit. To minimize the frustration you'll feel along the way, hope for the best but expect the worst.

Stay focused. Focus your time and energy on one major goal at a time and avoid getting pulled away by potential distractions. Devoting yourself to multiple actions will probably decrease the quality of each one. Some distractions are obvious. For example, spending time online, watching television, or playing video games is fine in moderation since it can help you relax and recharge, but doing too much of it too often can cause you to waste time you should be spending on the pursuit of your goals. Less obvious distractions include other goals. You can become great at multiple things, but you should only focus on one thing at a time. Trying to pursue too much at once will limit the amount of time and practice you can devote to any one thing, thereby making it more difficult to grow in any one skill.

Build a support system. While it is possible to achieve greatness without a steady system of support, you'll find the journey much easier to continue if you have mentors and cheerleaders helping you out along the way. A large support group isn't necessarily better than a small support group made of dedicated, loyal individuals. Mentors and coaches can guide you along the right path. Cheerleaders can support you as you struggle to reach your goals. Even rivals can help motivate you to push through your struggles, but friendly rivals who can value you as a competitor are usually better than hostile ones.

Release the reins. There will inevitably be some point at which you will need to accept that someone else knows better or has more control over the way things get done. Instead of fighting that individual, it would be better for you to learn from how that person approaches the task. Observing the way someone else does things can allow you to remove yourself from the process and take a more objective look at things. Don't be afraid to confront beliefs you currently have or consider new ideas. Your way might still be better when all is said and done, but even if that ends up being the case, you will at least be able to reinforce and strengthen your previous ideas.

Accept change. Most people are actually okay with the changes they decide to make for themselves, yet struggle with change that is forced upon them regardless of their own will. To get great at anything in life, you'll need to stop getting upset by unexpected change and start learning how to adapt to change as it comes. Learning how to adapt is, in itself, a skill worth becoming great at. Life rarely goes according to plan, and even if you become great at the perfect cookie-cutter way of doing something, you may eventually need to expand beyond that mold when it no longer serves your purposes.

Be honest. You don't know everything; that much is a given. Instead of wasting energy trying to hide that very obvious and undeniable fact, you should be honest about the things you do and don't know. Only by admitting to your weaknesses can you find the resources to overcome them and become great. Being honest with others about your own shortcomings and imperfections can be a very vulnerable sensation, so many people choose to avoid it on instinct. Honesty and vulnerability are essential components of open-mindedness, however, and it takes an open mind to see the full range of possibilities and pursue the best option.

Seeking Improvement

Quit relying on raw talent. Too many people believe that the “great ones” are those who possess some raw, inherent talent. Most people, however, only become great after devoting their time and energy toward the goal of greatness. Raw talent has virtually nothing to do with it. What most people mistake as "raw talent" is actually just early aptitude. It is possible for someone to have a natural aptitude toward something from a young age, but without hard work, that aptitude cannot be successfully developed into any great talent.

Decide on your goal. Before you can become great at something, you need to decide what that “something” actually is. Set a clear, definite goal that you can chase after. After setting your goal, you can determine the qualities you'll need to develop to reach it. The path the greatness needs to contain multiple mile markers. Instead of focusing on one overall goal, you need to set small goals for you to focus on in the short-term. Completing each small goal should progress you one step closer to your overall goal. For example, if you want to become a great guitar player, an early goal might be to memorize the chords. After you accomplish that goal, your next one might be to play a simple song. After the simple song, aim for a more difficult song, and an even more difficult one after that.

Look for examples. Look for positive examples of people who have become great at the sort of goal you've set for yourself. Study their work and figure out what they did right, what they did wrong, and what you can take away from their experiences overall. Research your role models' methods. Read everything you can about the difficulties they overcame, the chances they took, and the effort they put into things. Use both primary and secondary sources. Read and listen to your role models' direct words, then read and listen to the words that others have spoken or written about those same role models.

Perform the task. After you've thought about the quality you want to develop, you need to actually do that task. As you perform the task in question, pay close attention to the method you use and the results it produces each step of the way. The idea is to know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. If you do something right, you'll need to know how to duplicate that correct step in the future. If you do something wrong, you'll need to figure out how to avoid the incorrect step later on.

Look for feedback. Constructive criticism might be frightening and unpleasant, but it is also crucial to your development. Ask someone who knows a lot about your chosen task to watch as you perform it. Then, ask that individual to point out anything you did wrong and make suggestions on how you might fix those errors. Leave your emotions out of it. When someone critiques you, understand that the critique is a helpful tool. It doesn't make you any less valuable or any less likely to achieve your goals. At the same time, you also need to make sure that the people you're getting critiques from are worthwhile critics. Even the most well-intentioned person can be a lousy critic if they don't have the knowledge to back up the critique. Similarly, the most knowledgeable person can also be a terrible critic if they only want to insult you instead of helping you improve.

Practice often. Practicing your chosen task every now and then won't be enough to master it. If you really want to become great, you will need frequent and consistent practice. When considering professional fields, the most accomplished people in their fields generally need to dedicate at least ten years of hard work before they develop great enough skills to reach their level of success.

Challenge yourself. At some point, your practices might become easy and dull. Change your practice sessions when this happens so that they become more difficult again. Improvement only comes when you're being challenged to make yourself better. Hard work alone isn't enough. Your method of practice needs to be deliberate and stimulating. Simply repeating the same action over and over again won't yield results, so you'll need to practice with the goal of improvement on your mind. Do this by regularly tackling forms of practice that are increasingly more challenging.

Allow yourself to make mistakes. After all, you're only human. Things will go wrong, and sometimes, the unwanted result might be a direct result of some action you performed poorly or with bad judgment. Don't let the mistakes scare you, though. The path to greatness cannot be walked without tripping over the occasional obstacle. If you're afraid of failing, you won't be able to move forward. If you aren't able to move forward, you won't be able to do the things you need to do to become great.