Who is your hero? I want you to look at who your hero is. For me, I always thought of my father as my hero. He was an amazing person, would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. He always put everyone else first before himself and in that way, I admire him and think of him as my hero. But when I truly look deeply into his life, he struggled so much with his self-esteem. He allowed people to treat him any kind of way and he didn’t stand up for himself. 

Realization #1 – Know Your Weaknesses

I never wanted to have those traits or develop those characteristics. As I have gotten older, I notice I have started to become him. I am very giving but at the same time, I don’t stand up for myself all the time in all situation. I allow things to happen or people to treat me any kind of way and not say or do anything about it. Today, I listened to a man speak and he stated that no matter who is your hero, you will turn out like them. To me that made so much sense. And I came to realize that if your hero is average, then you will be average. If he/she are law breakers, then you eventually will be a law breaker. But if he/she are phenomenal people in every aspect of your life then you will be a phenomenal person in every aspect of your life. So, in short, you need to choose your hero’s accordingly.

Realization #2 – Choose Your Side Kicks

Know who you want by your side and choose someone who pushes you to be better and do better all the time. Do NOT be around or hang around people who bring you down or don’t allow your greatness to shine. Keep your favorite 5, people you inspire to be like and who can keep you accountable for your actions. Understand, if you want to achieve greatness then you must surround yourself with greatness. Look at your life and your current friends lives and even though you love them you need to tell them, if you’re not going to get better with me then you can get worse without me. Stand firm in your decision but ultimately give them the choice, if they love you they will choose to get better with you.

Realization #3 – Know Your Habits

Understand that you make your habits and your habits make you. It is so deep when you really think about it. This can be used for good or bad choices. For example, say your goal is to become the next great football player, you must work out, eat properly, get adequate rest and you must spend excessive amounts of time practicing on your football skills more than anyone else. Those to do’s are must haves to become great at football. That applies to anything you want to do in life, you have to out work the most successful person in your field if you want to separate yourself from any competition. You must learn how to dominate in your field to become great.

Clarity and Direction

Take a deep look at your life and your surroundings. You may come from less than perfect circumstances, or you may come from great circumstances and still make poor choices. Anyone can find an excuse of why you are not the place you should be, but everyone has a choice to make better choices that are in line with their goals. Always remember, with every good, bad, or indifferent choice there is good, bad or indifferent consequence. Go out and make more good choices than bad ones.  Before you know it, those good choices will become habits and as I said earlier, your habits will make you rise on the success ladder.