Average comes from doing what everybody else is doing. It’s completely natural to do what everyone else is doing because that is the way we are brought up. We grow up seeing people do the same things every day and we learn that these are the acceptable things to do and the acceptable way to live our lives. We learn that we need to go to school and get good grades so that we can move on and get a good job and so on. We learn that we listen to the radio while driving in our cars. We learn to turn on the TV when we get home from work so that we can relax. These are all average activities.
To get lucky and get ahead in this world, you can’t be average. You have to be above average. If you and ten other people apply for a job and you are average, you will not get the job because average is just not good enough. The job will go to the person who is the most above average. To differentiate yourself from the rest of the world, you need to be above average.
Look around you and see what everyone else is doing to determine what average is and then one up them. If they watch the news, you should read a paper. If they read the local paper, you should read the local and national paper and if you’re a professional, read all the papers and journals you can in your field. Average people listen to the radio or music in the car or on their IPods, you can listen to audio books and Podcasts.
Earl Nightingale said that you can become an expert in any field by just reading about it for one hour a day for five years. Now five years sounds like a long time but the truth is that it is only one hour a day for only 5 days per week, 1300 hours total. People go to school for much longer than that just to become “average”.
To get lucky, look around at average people and do things to become above average. Then find something you love and become an expert at it. Start out by reading a bit more each day and grow from there. There are an infinite amount of above average activities for you to enjoy.
How did you become above average today?