WHY ONLY SOME PEOPLE RISE TO TOP?

Change has been the norm of mankind since the beginning but never at such a stupendous rate. The pace of change has skyrocketed as never before and has thus thrown us into an era of absolute uncertainty and unforeseen future. And so has the level of performance everywhere encountered milestones.

Over the course of the civilization, massive twists and turns have embarked, changing the landscape of the society as well as raising the expectations for excellence. Throughout the centuries, mankind has defied the odds by displaying its stunning feats of strength, endurance, intelligence, creativity, resilience and interpersonal skills and raising the bars of living as well as performing. It has thus given us certain amazingly exceptional and prodigious performers in all fields ranging from atheletics to music, from business to politics, from science and technology to painting, and many more. Think of Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson, David Goggins, Leonardo da Vinci, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, John Cena, Shah Rukh Khan. The list goes on.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERFORMERS

Since the origin of the civilization, there has been a competition among the human race to outperform others and make their mark in the pages of history. This potential competition has broadly categorized human race into three distinct groups, namely, the poor performers, the mediocrity and the exceptional performers. All the three groups don't owe to us any sort of validation. I am not going to jot down about the normal masses (the poor performers and the mediocrity). Neither I am going to mention who all are the exceptional performers since they are superficial to us and we acknowledge them in every walks of our lives. What I am going to talk about is pretty contrasting. I am going to dive into the notion of what actually separates the best from the rest. Let's begin.

THE FLAWED ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE

Over the ages, humankind has done a lamentable job of creating its own touchstones known as assumptions and placing them above in worth than anything. Even facts!

So is true about exceptional performance. Humankind didn't feel any shame in developing impractical and rigid assumptions about the reason for truly brilliant performance. The conventional society believes that extraordinary performance comes from extraordinary innate abilities. That is, an individual is born with those talents and those talents are genetic that come from specific genes. And those talents cannot be acquired by an individual through deliberate efforts.

CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONAL DOGMA ABOUT EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE

So I would take immense pride in doing what I love and that's challenging the beliefs of the conventional wisdom again. It such boastfully claims that either you have those so called "specific innate talents" or you don't. How limiting!

Whatever an individual accomplishes or fails to accomplish in life, it is because of his/her efforts. Put it simple, talent is nothing but an acquired or learned skill by an individual in a particular domain through laborious hard work and plenty of time. And this is not my opinion but the biology of humankind. A matter of fact is that the branch of science that deals with the study of genes, through intensive research, has still not found the use of all human genes. But from all what it has found, it contradicts the conventional dogma. Researchers have discovered that all the success that an individual achieves is because of the time and hard work he/she has given and anything like innate abilities or inborn talents, do not even exist.(SOURCE: A research conducted by the Harvard University)

WHAT ACTUALLY SEPARATES THE BEST FROM THE REST? 

Through all of what I wrote, there ain't no doubt about the paradoxical reality of the reason behind extraordinary performance is palpable. But a valid question is still floating in our minds. And that's are hard work and time spent the only elements responsible for generating exceptional performance? Ummmnn...No! Those two elements are undoubtedly the inalienable components for extraordinary performance but they are not the only factors. Through practical researches, studies have disclosed the underlying reality that irrespective of their fields, there are certain things common in all the peak performers. They are profoundly listed below:-

1.) They have focus

All of those prodigious performers, irrespective of their fields, possessed jaw dropping focus. They had staggeringly ignited focus on their desirable goals. Whatever happened with them in the journey, they never lost their focus and this undoubtedly, paid them off. For a most dazzling example, when Bill Gates was asked to describe the recipe of his success in one word, it is intriguing to know that he answered promptly, "Focus."

2.) They take complete responsibility

They have an attitude within themselves to take complete charge of their lives and own all of their aspects completely. They hold themselves accountable at every point by swallowing the natural bubble ego. Whenever they face setbacks or meet temporary defeats, they don't surrender over there or blame others for their shortcomings but instead investigate themselves and track what actually had pulled them down and act to improve them and eventually flourish.

3.) They don't make excuses

I have a dare for you. Go on a hunt for the very best performers on this adorable planet called Earth and observe their behaviour pattern. And figure out that whenever things don't go as they planned or when they can't complete what they thought of punctually or face any sort of shortcomings, do they make lame excuses like the majority of us, claiming that they don't have much time or they failed because their rival had better gears in his arsenal? Or do they even blame their circumstances? I'll bet good money that you will fail to get wind of any such behaviour pattern within them and that's what separates them from the crowd.

4.) They stay persistent

No matter what all hurdles come in their journey, no matter how many times they fail, but they always stay in the fight. They have the faith within them that they can do and be whatever that they want to and thus dare to continue on the adventurous trek. What the majority of us find tedious, they find it opportunities for learning and growth. They have this feeling within them that if they can believe it, they can achieve it.

5.) They are open-minded

The human research on extraordinary performance didn't leave a stone unturned. It disclosed all the underlying elements that constitute the behaviour pattern of exceptional performers including one of the most contradicting element to the deplorable conventional mindset. That element is a never ending pattern within the very best in the world. They have an open mind. They are never led by their subconscious emotions. They always welcome true knowledge about everything including their selves. They stay away from all the flawed assumptions and embrace truth. They stay ready to accept honest feedback about themselves and seldom break off from this process. To them, learning is hope, learning is faith and learning is growth.

                     THE CONCLUSION

Now, we have come to a drift where the subtlety of extraordinary performance is palpable. Well, it doesn't end here. Learning without doing is useless. It is time for us to embrace the truth and stay away from hyperboles. Let us get inspired by the underlying struggles of top level performers and make our actions the replicas of the same. And that shall be pretty inspiring.