The Shortcut to Being a Champion: Two Powerful Lessons on Passion

Yeah right! I am so sure you did not open up this article in anticipation for the shortcut! For the record, there is no shortcut to championships. The point is that every human being wants to make it grandest at the shortest possible time. 

The paradox however is that the world was not structured that way. If you honestly thought that there is a shortcut to anything that really matters to you, I am here to tell you that that dog won’t hunt! So why am I titling this topic with that word shortcut? Let me tell you what has been happening to me of late. Most of my readers will know that I am an ardent jogger. I have written loads of what I consider to be inspiring stuff that came right from my jogging escapades. Of the recent past however, I have been tread-milling so much in the gym (but I don’t say).

So on two occasions, two different people have given me the same feedback on different dates. The first guy approached me, kind of like in awe of me and asked me if I was a professional athlete. I laughed and said, “No way!” But here is the thing…he marveled so much of how I keep up on the treadmill. He wondered how a human being would do what I was doing.

The second guy however did not marvel as much, yet he gave the same feedback. He asked, “Man, are you a professional athlete or what?” He needed an answer. And ladies and gentlemen, what I told those two guys is the answer to the shortcut of becoming a champion….in anything that matters to you.

I told both of them that I have a personal goal that I am running to achieve…before you log off, this is not another article about goal setting…at least not directly. This is an article about getting noticed by concentrating on what matters to you.

Here is the deal about shortcuts to greatness. The shortcut to greatness is to know what it takes and totally committing all in your power to getting there! Tweet this. I never saw a champion who was not committed! The reason as to why those two guys at the gym (by the way, I am skinnier than them) saw greatness in me was that I showed a consistent level of commitment to that which I considered important to me.

You see, my personal goal is to be able to run ten Kilometers under thirty minutes. That is what drives me the moment I get into that gym. As a result, people are already identifying me as a champion and yet I am so far away from that goal. At the moment, I am able to comfortably run six Kilometers under thirty minutes. There is still four to go…and achieving that is no mean feat I tell you!

So there are two things here:

• Find that which you are passionate about: Life Signatures  is all about doing what matters to you so well that it positively affects your world, and ultimately, THE world. Tweet this. The key here is what matters to you. Take a look at my example. Do you think I set out to be a world champion in jogging? Hardly! Yet it matters to me so much that I am passionate about it. The result? People are getting motivated about commitment. If two guys could gather the strength to converse with me in the gym (I wear a natural stone face), it tells you that there are scores others who get inspired silently but are not saying it. When you passionately pursue your ‘what matters’, there are two people who benefit from it. The first is yourself, and the second is others. And the more others benefit, the more you are motivated to keep at it. And the cycle continues.

• Stay Committed no matter what to it, UNTIL it is done: A man of honor for example is not the man in a tuxedo on his wedding day. A man of honor is a STAYING MAN. He knows what it takes to be a great husband and dad and he gets himself committed to fulfilling it. This is where many champions are tested. Nothing comes without a challenge. Dreaming is the wedding and honeymoon. Grinding the results will need the honey moon to be over! This only comes when someone is committed. There are days when you will not feel like getting out there. Your commitment index will help you here. There are days when you will feel like a master…but only on a lower level…and a total novice when you move the challenge a notch higher. This is the crux of this post. Stay committed!

The shortcut to being WORLD CLASS ladies and gentlemen, is to find out what matters to you and get committed to it until you get there! Join me next in a series of posts about being WORLD CLASS throughout the month of July and August.