4 Ways To Beat the Constant Pressure to Be Great

It’s an amazing feeling when you work hard to achieve a goal, and after incredible struggle, you achieve success.

For 12 years I didn’t care about success, I was comfortable living a good enough life. In April of 2012, my father died suddenly at 54 shattering what I thought a comfortable life meant.

My last conversations with my father were a wake up call. I realized that life is too short to live with regret. I immediately took action on chasing my dreams, and changing my life.

It took three years, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but I found my success. I lost 170 pounds, I quit a job I hated to write, speak, and coach full-time. Our family moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to our dream designation of Maui, Hawaii.

After finding my success, I kept thinking, “what’s next?” I have met people who are where I was, as they’re chasing their dreams. They look to me for inspiration, and I don’t want to let them down. I felt the pressure that everything I did needed to be great.

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re a leader. As a leader, you want to lead by example, you don’t want to let anyone down. If you’re dealing with the pressure to always be great, here are four tips to help you deal with that pressure.

1. Don’t focus on yourself

Success comes from a place of service, which means helping others. It’s natural to think about our selves, and our need to always be great, but with leadership comes a responsibility to lead.

We have to think about the struggles that those following us are going through, and the solution to help them during those struggles. We don’t have time to worry about our emotions; we have to focus on leading. This isn’t about us. This is about helping others.

2. Always strive for excellence

Your goal shouldn’t be perfection, but it should be excellence. This means that you don’t produce fluff. It means you consistently produce your best work. You may have deadlines, and pressure, but you take the time needed to make sure what you put out to the world is something you gave your 100% effort into.

Excellence leads to success in every area of your life. You don’t need to always be great to produce excellent work, you just have to be committed to the success of those you serve.

3. Remember your why

You’re doing this for a reason, and most likely a person, so that’s where your focus should be. Again, this isn’t about you. Why you do what you do is the fuel in your success engine.

Your why will out weigh your need to constantly feel great. It will help you focus on what’s important, and what you need to be doing right now. It will help you realize that you’re not perfect, but you’ll keep moving forward anyway because you have a higher calling.

4.  Realize that success is a marathon

If you’re in this for quick results, you’re in the wrong business. Success doesn’t happen over night. It takes time to create a plan, research, and take action on whatever success will look like for you.

In some cases, success means changing your entire life. It means creating new habits that will continue to fuel success. All of this takes time, and you will deal with failure along the way.

Realize that everyone fails. The people who achieve success have determined that no matter how many times they fail, they’re going to keep pushing forward anyways.

We all want greatness in our life, and this is amplified after you achieve success and have people who look up to you. Use these four principles to continue success and grow. Don’t let the pressure knock you off the success journey!

Do you feel the pressure to constantly be great?