What is the most important part of being successful? It is to be a good learner. Learning is the most important skill. Why? Because if you are good at learning it makes every other skill you must acquire easier.

So what does it take to be a good learner? It means you have to understand and acknowledge that your cup is empty.

A master was trying to explain something to a student. Now this student was not a brand new student, but a senior student who had learned many things. He had knowledge and experience aplenty to draw upon. But each time the master tried to explain something new to the student, the student kept trying to hold it up against his own notions of the way the world is and how it ought be, and he was unable to see the lessons in what the master was trying to teach him.

Finally, the master poured a full serving of tea into his own cup, and into the cup of the student. Then he told the student he wanted to give to him some of the tea from his own cup. He began pouring tea from his cup into the student’s cup, but the student’s cup was already full, and all the tea from the master’s cup spilled out over the cup onto the surface below.

The student said, “Master, you can’t pour anything into my cup until I empty it to make room for what you are trying to give me.”, and the master replied “Yes I know.” “And I can’t give you any new thoughts or ideas or perspectives on life’s lessons until you clear out some thoughts that are already teeming in your mind to make room for what I have to teach you.” Then the master paused for a brief moment, meeting the student’s eyes with his own knowing look and calmly but sternly said: ” If you truly seek understanding, then first, empty your cup!”

The student pondered for a moment with a look of absolute bewilderment. Then a look of enlightenment came over him, followed by a smile, and a look of receptiveness. The master started to explain again, and this time the student saw what the master was trying to say.

(http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EmptyYourCup)

This is, I think, the first step to success.

The most successful people in the world do a few things really well. They all wake up early. They all use some sort of journal. They all read and learn constantly. The most successful people in the world learn constantly then so can us mere mortals. Ancora Imparo. How is it that all these amazingly successful people do this? Because they understand that Mastery is a path. You will never be the best you can be. You will always be learning. In other words It is the road, not the inn.

So knowing that you must learn constantly what then is the next secret? It is figuring out how bad you want it. I’m a big fan of Eric Thomas. He compares success to drowning. Basically if you have ever been drowning you know that all you think about is getting air. You don’t think about your girlfriend or partying or getting laid or anything. All you’re focused on is getting air. So when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath you will find your focus.

At the end of the day you must find a reason why your goals are worth more than anything else. If you can’t find a reason then you’ll just end up doing anything else. At the end of the day, success doesn’t come by saying yes to training. It doesn’t come by saying yes to your goals. It comes by saying no to the hundreds of other things that may detract you from your goals. Success means sacrificing what you may want right now for the future you want to have.

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt. And sacrifice hurts. I’ll quote Eric Thomas again:
Most of you say you want to be successful but you don’t want it bad. You just kind of want it. You don’t want it badder than you want to party. You don’t want it as much as you want to be cool. Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep. Some of you love sleep more than you love success.

You must stay hungry. Do not be satisfied. Ever. Do not be satisfied with what you know or what you’ve learned because there is always more. Do not be satisfied with the person you are because you can be better. It’s really easy to win a race when you’re in the last heat.Don’t be satisfied with winning a shitty race. Put yourself into situations where you will be challenged to grow as a person.

Doing what you love means doing a lot of things you hate. As Tim Grover says “Cleaners sweat the small things” Champions go after every opportunity to improve no matter how small. Those small things add up.

You need to decide who you want to be. If you want to be average then do whatever the average person does. And so expect average results and performance. If you want to achieve something you’ve never achieved you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. It’s hard work. As the All Blacks say: Champions Do Extra. Unfortunately for those of us who want to be champions there are no crowds lining the extra mile.