One Degree of Separation

What does it take to win? To really win and to reach the destination we have set out for ourselves?

The truth is, it may be far less than you may have thought.

Over the years I have talked at great length about elite performance—what it means and what it takes to achieve it. The true definition of winning is: to design your own life and pull it off.

The "pulling it off" requires effort and activity. Belief and determination. Commitment and forward vision.

I had an interesting thing happen to me yesterday. At the end of finishing up my scheduled calls and follow-ups with prospective clients, I was about to move on when I saw that I had a few more minutes until the next activity was to begin. Digging deeper into the file of contacts, I picked out two more names and called.

Both calls were to directors of large divisions in their companies. Both have been on the radar for sometime. Both now have meetings booked in their calendars to meet with me.

The truth is that it was easy to make just those two extra calls. I'm certain it would have been just as easy or perhaps easier not to make them.

I believe there is magic in this theory. To reach up one inch higher. To push ourselves, not to exhaustion but that little bit more. Each day a little bit more.

We can pay witness to the separation of good to great every day:

• The one shot that separates the victor from the rest of the field in golf.
• The personal trainer who inspires the client to complete two more reps of weights at the gym.
• The parent who takes that extra moment to include a note in a child's lunch that says, "I love you."

Set the goal, then, to do this: Be curious. Ask the question on a regular basis, "If I took just one more step, made just one more call, reached just one inch higher, what door may open that I would never have been able to walk through?"

Think of it. There may be just this thin veil that separates where you are from where you want to be. Just one degree of separation.

Have an excellent day.