Quotes- How to be Great

If you're thinking that the average person won't do this, you're right -- that's why they're average.
-Steve Pavlina

I remember thinking that if I found that one thing I was good at then I would be good without trying. It's the moviesque story isn't it. The phenom who just gets it. That doesn't exist. Michael Irvin was a great receiver and considered by many to have a natural talent, he just had it. What people don't talk about is how when he was growing up he would run every single day in a forty pound weight vest. A quote from Jason Garrett on a night with Irvin:

“So I meet him at the complex at 7 p.m. It’s 100 degrees. No one there but the two of us. I’m wearing grays (t-short and shorts). Irvin’s wearing his helmet, his shoulder pads, this big heavy weight vest he wore in practice and these hot rubber pants. We run metabolics, which are position-specific exercises. For receivers, that means running routes. And he’s running them.

“We do five sets of ten of these things. Not a lot is said. He runs a route, hard, catches the ball, walks it back, does it again. Stops after a set to swig some Gatorade. We’re doing 50, 60 throws, and after about throw 35, I’m sweating, I’m thinking, ‘I’m getting a little tired.’ He’s out there in his rubber pants and his big freakin’ weight vest running more routes. And I remember thinking, ‘This is why this guy is so good.’ And there’s not a soul there to see it.”

Gladwell, Godin, and a host of others have all said it. Being great at something isn't a gift, the mentality to pursue something so hard that you become great is the gift. Experts are made, and the road is not easy.