The Exceptional Performer

Dear lovely people,

I feature amongst those who insist that achieving success requires setting goals, working hard and remaining focused on a long-term plan. Ralph Marston says “Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.”

Get one of my secrets on a platter! Once you set out on the quest for success, working hard and focusing on your long-term plan is good because it will enable you to meet whatever agreed goals you set out to accomplish but to achieve outstanding success, you need something more. You MUST be an exceptional performer.

Exceptional performance concerns accomplishments that are new, surprising, and valuable. You MUST do more than meet your original objectives. You MUST exceed them in some way that is new, surprising and valuable. When these three characteristics come together in with your performance, there is something that is unmistakably exceptional thus making it extraordinary. Notice that I insist on the word ‘must’ because there is just no middle line, it’s it or nothing at all.

Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino who vowed to end Mayweather's unbeaten record in a $300million Fight of the Century in Las Vegas once said “Boxing is not about your feelings. It's about exceptional (my emphasis) performance.”