HOW TO HAVE A WORLD CLASS LIFE

"Discontent and restlessness is part of the searcher in you" ~ Dr. Mike Murdock [Tweet this]

World class! Who does not want that? There was a time I was flying with my boss on Economy class. For some reason, the airline 'upgraded' me to Business Class as I was boarding. It was so funny that the boss wanted us to swap tickets right then and there! I laughed about it. The consolation was that the boss also got the same 'upgrade'.

When everything is constant, every human being has an innate desire for 'more', for better. I love people who have a 'holy discontentment' of what they are now, what they are getting and where they are. I am one of them.

I just upgraded my dream car to the world class Rolls Royce!

God loves them too. In fact, I would say that all that God has done and is doing, whether obscure or prominent is for the general purpose of fitting in a 'world class' agenda.

The free dictionary defines the phrase World class as follows:

"Ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence; of the highest order;

"of or denoting someone with a skill or attribute that puts him or her in the highest class in the world"

The phrase World Class could mean among other things: Uncommon, Extra-ordinary, 'Out of this world'. I do not know of an individual who would not be interested in living a world class life...OK, may be the super-spiritual and the ignorant.

However, wanting to live a world class life is one thing, actually living it is another. What I am convinced strongly is that no one was meant to live an ordinary, average life. A simple study of the make up of the internal systems of a human being tells you as much.

All of us have the potential of living a world class life. A world class life not only fulfills you, it reverberates to impact others positively in more than one generation. For the record, a world class life is not the life of popular personalities in Movies, Sports, Television and Politics...far from it! Well, all these people have gained notoriety yet notoriety is not the yardstick of measuring a world class life. 

• There are wives who know that they have world class husbands,
• There are husbands who know that they have world class wives,
• There are children blessed with world class parents,
• And there are parents who are guiding children to be world class citizens,
• There are leaders, and then there are world class leaders whoever obscure they could be.
• There are world class coaches, world class teachers, world class pastors, world class friends and so on.

The following are ways you can have a world class life:

1. Know and Intend: If we are going to be world class, we must first be clear in knowledge of what world class means. We need to know what a world class life looks like. Here is the thing, your definition of world class is totally different from mine. Its true. Your definition of success is totally different from mine. It is not a measure of right and wrong. It is a measure of desire. That's why my pastor says that "If you are happy with what you have, even God cannot change that". After knowing your world class, it is time to have a daily intention about it.
2. No Compromise: Refuse to settle for anything less than world class! I wrote about this here. One of the greatest tragedies of humanity is the masses who settle for less (Tweetable quote). Just the fact that you know what a world class means to you does not mean that it will fall of the sky to you. It takes time, commitment, patience, collaboration, failure, feedback and so on to finally experience the world class life. It is a Life Signature. As visionaries, we never really graduate in life...we keep reaching out, being better, deeper, more caring, more loving and more valuable!
3. Selfishness: OK here we go with raised eyebrows! Look, if you want to be world class, you have to start with yourself. I am a firm stickler of racing against yourself, focusing on yourself. Before you can compete with the world, have you competed against yourself? There is no champion who never self competed. In fact, the best way to love someone else is to love yourself. "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" is not one of the golden rules, it is a commandment. This is a big one. This point alone has created as many champions as it has felled many from prominence. Take note.
4. Selflessness: Oh! Did you feel the change in the atmosphere with the mention of that word? A world class life is not entirely selfish. These four words, "How may I help you", deepens the owner so great, showing forth their capacity to care. A world class life is lived on these two words, "I care". It is a life has the focus of others at all times. If your ultimate goal in life is to matter to others in a positive way, you are a candidate for a world class life. This is as big as God and His very nature.
5. Order: A world class life is full of order! A world class husband for example has his world (house) organized in order under his leadership. You cannot have a world class life with dis-order. That is worse than an oxymoron in that it does not exist!
6. Excellence: You are continuously seeking for ways to improve. You are open to correction. You are always looking for the latest in technology or advancement to use. You want things done the best possible way. You are do what is expected plus one. That is world class.
7. Passion: Ever seen a world class cemetery? Who would want one anyway? There is no passion in death. I mean, I have never met a passionate dead man or woman. Have you? So if you want a world class life, how about get some great passion going on in your life? How about you be passionate about what matters to you? Passion does not talk of feelings. Passion talks of commitment. The feelings ensue from commitment, they do not drive it.

From today, we will be welcoming several guests here on Life Signatures to share with us their thoughts on several aspects of their lives as we focus on a world class life.

Stay tuned.

THE SHORTCUT TO BEING A CHAMPION

Yeah right! I am so sure you did not open up this article in anticipation for the shortcut! For the record, there is no shortcut to championships. The point is that every human being wants to make it grandest at the shortest possible time. 

The paradox however is that the world was not structured that way. If you honestly thought that there is a shortcut to anything that really matters to you, I am here to tell you that that dog wont hunt! So why am I titling this topic with that word shortcut?

Andy Murray...the 2013 Wimbledon Champion

Let me tell you what has been happening to me of late. Most of my readers will know that I am an ardent jogger. I have written loads of what I consider to be inspiring stuff that came right from my jogging escapades. Of the recent past however, I have been tread-milling so much in the gym (but I don't say). 

So on two occasions, two different people have given me the same feedback on different dates. The first guy approached me, kind of like in awe of me and asked me if I was a professional athlete. I laughed and said, "No way!" But here is the thing...he marveled so much of how I keep up on the treadmill. He wondered how a human being would do what I was doing.

The second guy however did not marvel as much, yet he gave the same feedback. He asked, "Man, are you a professional athlete or what?" He needed an answer. And ladies and gentlemen, what I told those two guys is the answer to the shortcut of becoming a champion....in anything that matters to you.

I told both of them that I have a personal goal that I am running to achieve...before you log off, this is not another article about goal setting...at least not directly. This is an article about getting noticed by concentrating on what matters to you.

Here is the deal about shortcuts to greatness. The shortcut to greatness is to know what it takes and totally committing all in your power to getting there! Tweet this. I never saw a champion who was not committed! The reason as to why those two guys at the gym (by the way, I am skinnier than them) saw greatness in me was that I showed a consistent level of commitment to that which I considered important to me.

You see, my personal goal is to be able to run ten Kilometers under thirty minutes. That is what drives me the moment I get into that gym. As a result, people are already identifying me as a champion and yet I am so far away from that goal. At the moment, I am able to comfortably run six Kilometers under thirty minutes. There is still four to go...and achieving that is no mean feat I tell you!

So there are two things here:

• Find that which you are passionate about: Life Signatures  is all about doing what matters to you so well that it positively affects your world, and ultimately, THE world. Tweet this. The key here is what matters to you. Take a look at my example. Do you think I set out to be a world champion in jogging? Hardly! Yet it matters to me so much that I am passionate about it. The result? People are getting motivated about commitment. If two guys could gather the strength to converse with me in the gym (I wear a natural stone face), it tells you that there are scores others who get inspired silently but are not saying it. When you passionately pursue your 'what matters', there are two people who benefit from it. The first is yourself, and the second is others. And the more others benefit, the more you are motivated to keep at it. And the cycle continues.

• Stay Committed no matter what to it, UNTIL it is done: A man of honor for example is not the man in a tuxedo on his wedding day. A man of honor is a STAYING MAN. He knows what it takes to be a great husband and dad and he gets himself committed to fulfilling it. This is where many champions are tested. Nothing comes without a challenge. Dreaming is the wedding and honeymoon. Grinding the results will need the honey moon to be over! This only comes when someone is committed. There are days when you will not feel like getting out there. Your commitment index will help you here. There are days when you will feel like a master...but only on a lower level...and a total novice when you move the challenge a notch higher. This is the crux of this post. Stay committed!

The shortcut to being WORLD CLASS ladies and gentlemen, is to find out what matters to you and get committed to it until you get there! Join me next in a series of posts about being WORLD CLASS throughout the month of July and August.