What I am about to share with you is one of the top three most impact things that have ever happened in my life.
In summer of my sophomore year, my Dad called out to me while I was playing Call of Duty with my friends in my room. With heavy feet, I walked out and sat at the table.
“I want to ask you a question”, he said. Keep in mind, we weren’t in school so it definitely wasn’t anything related to anything that I perceived as “important” at that time.
“What makes anybody, that’s achieved anything great in life, different than you?” he asked. And I just sat there silently, thinking about my unfinished match going on. And a few moments of silence from me, my Dad said that he wanted me to understand that NOTHING makes me any different from them.
“Anybody who’s ever achieved anything great puts on their pants one leg at a time, just like you do. So what makes you different?”, he added. I answered, “I don’t know. They can do it and I can’t. That’s just the way they are.” He snapped back at me and said, “DON’T EVER SAY THAT AGAIN! The only difference is that they just act and think differently.”
As a teen, I totally didn’t pay attention to what my Dad was saying and just went back to playing. But what my Dad did at that moment, is he planted a seed of greatness within me.
It wasn’t until I started to pay attention to that seed and fertilized it, that it started to grow!
What my Dad taught me in that scenario, is he enabled me to notice that I AM CAPABLE. He made me realize that if I want to achieve anything great in my life, I have to be willing to put myself on the same playing field as anybody else that’s achieving greatness.
The moment you put titles on yourself, is the moment you limit what you can do. It puts you in a prison disguised as excuses – I’m not talented enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m just not that way.
The only way to break out is to ask yourself better questions. Ask yourself, “How can I develop the skills to get to their level?”
So enough with the titles! Enough with being mediocre and having a mediocre mindset! Go up the hill and go to camp greatness because that’s where your destiny is!