How to be an outstanding performer

What is the main reason you aren’t a bestselling author, a millionaire, a top athlete, or the founder of a super successful start-up? I would assert, belief.

We can’t achieve what we believe to be unachievable. Whether we think it’s not attainable in general, or not attainable for us, we need to trust in both in order to accomplish what we aspire for.

And oftentimes, we mostly doubt not so much our own skills, but the fact that what we want is achievable at all—or at least achievable for the general population.

We think that entrepreneurship is for people who’ve been steeped in a business-minded environment, that millionaires were raised by millionaires, artists were born by artists, and world-class athletes have genetic superiority.

In other words, we believe that certain level of performance is the prerogative of the selected few, not the many. And we are right to. Outlandish achievement is indeed for outliers. But they are outliers not because of their privileged history, heritage, or environment—they’re outliers because they’ve believed in the attainability of what’s considered unattainable by the majority.

To be a magician, you first need to believe in magic.

We can’t be magical performers, if we don’t believe in magic—and that’s both in the magic of life itself and in the magic of the being that we are. We can’t summon and radiate the energy, the awe, the wonder, if we see them not in the world around us.

The terms in which we see ourselves and the world are the terms that dictate the extent to which our life can expand. And these terms are up for grabs.