The Skillful Achiever

                                For many are called, but few are chosen. – Jesus

     Have you wondered what really separates people? Why is one person better than the other? Why does the least likely to succeed folk stand out of the crowd sometimes? Why are the few chosen while the others are not?

     It is second nature for folks to excuse themselves away from failure with reasons like, “I am not talented enough”. Sooner or later they learn that talent alone is incapable of taking them far in the first place. Some others fall on, “favour from God,” but unfortunately realize that though sufficient for them, they fail! There are yet some that believe in fate – whatever happens to me should happen – and live a life far below their potential.

     What really creates a perfect divide between folks in the same venture is more often than not their level of skill. One folk is skillful the other is not. It cuts across essentially every field. The skillful tailor will always produce better clothes than the merely talented one. The skillful writer will communicate his heart better than the unskilled one.

      Interestingly skill can be developed. It is not a gift. Nobody is born with skill in any field. You may be talented but not certainly not skillful. Whatever skill we possess we learned! You can learn any skill by following these simple steps.

      Step I: Open your heart. An open heart is one that says, “I do not know it all so I am willing to learn”. An open heart is one that is inclined to the new and not just the new but the different. There are seven billion people in our world and so expect billions of ways to do the thing you are involved in.

     Step II: Learn, unlearn, relearn. Not many folks know what to learn and how to learn it. Unfortunately for such, to become a skillful achiever you must be willing to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Advancements are made in every field every month. Are you at par with the progress made in your field or are you stuck with outdated information?

     Step III: Practice, practice, practice. The simplest, but ironically most important, advice you can give to anyone in a field is: “PRACTICE.” Never get tired of doing it one more time. Just the way you never noticed your physical growth whilst it occurred, you may not notice your progress while practicing but no single proper practice session leaves you the same way it met you.