Free The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class by Robin Sharma Page A

personal mastery.
    Make a commitment today that will alter the course of your life. Forever. Dedicate yourself to personal
mastery.
Think about your thinking. Detect your authentic values and what you aim to stand for. (How can you be who you are if you don’t know who you are?) Get to know your fears. Reflect on your personal genius and human potential. Learn to let go of the emotional baggage from you past. Refuse to tolerate negativity. (Kahlil Gibran oncewrote that “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother”; every one of us has so many more choices than we can currently see, and as we dare, doors we didn’t even know existed begin to open up.) Read more. Learn more. Get fit—no, get
ultra
fit (sad that—too often—good health only matters to those who have lost it). Become remarkable at what you do for work. Become so good at your craft that your organization cannot run without you. Become the friendliest person you know. Work on compassion and understanding. Be nice. Be good.
     
    Life offers you daily opportunities to shine. To polish your gifts. To release your chains. To achieve personal mastery.
     

     
     

73
BE UNPOPULAR
     
    If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m a fan of Ian Schrager’s hotels. Stayed in my first one nearly a decade ago when I did the U.S. book tour for
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
(the Paramount in NYC). In
The Greatness Guide
I wrote about St Martins Lane in London (still one of my all-time favorite hotels on the planet). Why do I like Schrager’s hotels? Because, when they first came out, they were unlike anything else (now most boutique hotels have some of the elements from the early Schrager days). They are unforgettably cool. They have the confidence to be part modern art gallery and part place to sleep. They lead rather than follow—like all the best businesses (and human beings).
    I’m reading a splendid book by Harry Beckwith called
What Clients Love
this morning as I drink my Colombian coffee. Reflecting on business and on life. In the book, Beckwith quotes Schrager who, true to form, says, “Let twenty-four despise [my hotels] for all I care—just so one in twenty-five love them.” The big idea for us: Businesses that try to be all things to all people end up being nothing to anyone. You need to stand for something. You need to play ferociously. Passionately. Emotionally. To get to world class. Or don’t play at all.
     
    The big idea for us: Businesses that try to be all things to all people end up being nothing to anyone.
     

     
     

74
OWN YOUR GREATNESS
     
    Read a letter scribbled in pencil from an inmate in an American prison this a.m. He said
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
changed his life. Because it helped him remember that he was made to make a difference and realize his potential. He’d forgotten who he was meant to be. Because life had hurt him. A lot.
    I hear this all the time. People appreciate being reminded that they are meant to play at great. That there are no extra people on the planet. That every life has a purpose. We knew these truths as kids. So we dreamed. We reached. We acted fearlessly. Lived life passionately. And stood in possibility. But we lost that wisdom—as we grew up and walked farther out into the world, away from our Real Nature.
    Maybe self-improvement is a waste of time. Maybe
self-remembering
(and reconnecting to the brilliance/creativity/authenticity/greatness you once knew) is where the action is. Lots of letters to me from
The Greatness Guide
readers speak of this. That life has a habit of making us forget. We fall into routine. We take things for granted. We stop taking risks. We stop aiming for the mountaintop. We stop speaking truth. We play small with thegift of our lives. But we deserve better than mediocrity. Ordinary people can do remarkable things. By recalling who they truly are. And living at their best.
     
    People appreciate being reminded that they are meant to play at great.