why professionals succeed, and amateurs fail

Success has always fascinated me.

For the past 10 years one of the main recurring thoughts in my head is, "why is that person so successful, and that other person so average?"

Think about it. You know people like that. People that seem to have so much natural talent or skill, endowed by the gods with some brilliant mind or incredible singing voice, yet they continually flounder in mediocrity, always treading water, but swimming nowhere.

Whereas friends possessing seemingly average intelligence or skills... proceed to skyrocket into the stratosphere with incredible relational, business, or financial success.

There are of course many factors that contribute this, but let's Occam's razor this into it's simplest, most practical component(s). And it unfortunately comes down to something a little less sexy than I'd hoped: habits.

I like Aristotle's striking observation: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then (or success), is not an act, but a habit."

Professionals take themselves seriously and have professional habits. Amateurs do not take themselves seriously, and likewise, do not have habits which lead them to success. I could harp on this for many pages but I'll end here.

So take a few seconds to ruminate on this thought:

"If I were to take my average day, and repeat it 1000 times in a row, would I be closer to where I want to be, or farther? Are my habits taking me to the life I want, or perpetually keeping it out of reach?" Only you can answer that.