You have to be odd to be number 1
A while back my daughter came home with one of those inspirational quote type of sayings from one of her teachers.
It said “you have to be odd to be number 1.” I loved it as soon as a saw it. Maybe I really am a softy at heart.
Of course, as a numbers person, I love the pun but in that one line it reinforces two important messages. It’s ok to be different and it’s ok to want to be the best.
Fast forward to today. My son and I did the morning taekwondo class yesterday and the grandmaster was reiterating the same message.
“You can’t accidentally climb a mountain.”
“You don’t get your next belt just because you show up a lot.”
“You have to make a decision if becoming a black belt is what you really want.”
“Sometimes you need to work harder to master the technique. You need to have another level of focus. You need to be obsessed. And that’s not normal.”
Then he shared a story of one of the instructors who is known for his flexibility, but it wasn’t always so (this definitely caught my attention). The instructor wanted to improve his flexibility so he committed to stretching one hour not once, not twice, or even three times per week… He stretched every day for one hour.
Every. Day.
Think about that next time you’re going on and on about something you wish you could do or how impressed you are with something someone else is doing.
The choice is yours.
For more kick-in-the-pants real talk apply for my one-on-one coaching program.
This time around, I’m doing a refundable application fee ($125) to weed out the people who might think about wasting my time.
If you show up and it ends up not being a fit for one or both of us, I’ll refund your money. If you no-show for our conversation without warning then I keep it.