Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

Take Charge of Your Life
➤
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6
Commit to Excellence
The quality of a person’s life will be determined by the
depth of their commitment to excellence, no matter what
their chosen field.
—
Vince Lombardi
The starting point of great accomplishment is for you to break loose
from the mental bonds that hold you back. Dreaming big dreams
and setting big goals provide the starting point of thinking, seeing,
and feeling yourself to be capable of achieving far more than you
ever have before.
How you think and feel about yourself is largely determined by
how 
effective
you feel you are in the important things you do, espe-
cially in your work or career. It is not possible for you to feel happy
and confident as a person if you are not competent and capable in
the areas of your life that are central to your personal identity.
One of the most powerful ways for you to change your thinking
about yourself is for you to 
commit to excellence
. It is to make the de-
cision, right now, to be the best, to join the top 10 percent in your
field, no matter how long it takes. The very act of thinking of your-
self as 
potentially
excellent at what you do actually changes your
mind-set and improves your personality. It makes you happier and
raises your self-esteem. You like and respect yourself more, just by
deciding to be the best.
The market pays superior rewards only for superior performance.
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It pays average rewards for average performance, and below-average
rewards, unemployment, and bankruptcy for below-average per-
formance. Today, the race is on in every area.Your competitors are
more capable and determined than they have ever been before,
and will grow even more so next year, and the year after, and for
the rest of your career. You have to run faster just to stay in the
same place.
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