Kevin Cole - Potential: The 5 Pillars to Unlock Excellence

Potential: The 5 Pillars to Unlock Excellence

By: Kevin Cole

The Mental Playground

Published by Archangel Ink

Copyright 2014, Kevin Cole

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Table of Contents

Introduction: You Dont Know What You Can Do

Let me tell you why youre here. Youre here because you know something. What you know, you cant explain, but you feel it. Youve felt it your entire life you dont know what it is, but its there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Morpheus, The Matrix

Within these pages, Im going to show you something.

Its called your potential, and you have a lot of it.

Without sounding clich, you have no idea what youre capable of right now.

None of us do. Were only living and dreaming based on our current circumstances.

Regardless of where youre at whether youre a broke college dropout like I once was or youre a highly successful entrepreneur your full potential is still out there.

Ill tell you straight from the start that realizing your full potential is a lifelong process.

The idea of GETTING to your potential is actually a fallacy. The process of realizing your potential is the essence of life. With each victory, with each good decision, with each day of hard work, you realize another small piece of your potential.

Everyone wants to look back on their life and say, I did something with my years.

If you want to see what youre truly capable of, its going to happen incrementally over time.

It is a long and winding road and its never smooth. But its a worthy endeavor.

Within these pages, Im going to offer you 5 pillars. These are concepts that will help you to realize your potential and unlock your excellence on this lifelong journey.

All of this is based on what I feel is accurate, and a lot of it will be backed up by science.

Im also going to share some deeply personal stories within this book in hopes that it helps you live a better life.

Some things I say in this book might offend you or bum you out. If so, I apologize in advance. All I ask is that you consider these ideas and see if they have a place in your life.

Along this journey, Im not going to be your messiah, but rather your companion and colleague. These words are not gospel, and I am not a guru. I am just doing my best and so are you.

Together, we will realize our potential.

The pillars in this book are solid, but they are all concepts. You can choose to do with them what you please.

I can only show you the door; youre the one who must walk through it. Morpheus, The Matrix

Lets do this.

Pillar #1: Life is Hard

This is a really depressing way to start this book, but this is the truth, and its something we all need to accept before we move forward into the other pillars.

Below, were going to look at why life is hard and what to do about it.

Who You Are Is What You Do

The decisions you make each and every day are what define you. It doesnt matter what you say, and it doesnt matter what you think. What you do is genuinely what counts.

Its entirely up to you. Seriously. You are the only person who can actually do the thing. The world is indifferent to you. It doesnt care if you do any of the work you need to do. The world has no opinions, and it wont scold you. Theres only one person you can disappoint and only one person who can truly hold you accountable, and that is yourself.

This is a tough pill to swallow because self-reliance is scary. Its not what we have been conditioned for, either.

Society has conditioned us to rely on others. At first, we relied on our parents to feed us, clothe us, etc. Then they taught us right from wrong. Then, our teachers chimed in and told us what to think about. Finally, we take on jobs where a boss tells us what we should do, how we should act, etc.

Throughout life, we are being spoon-fed. We are letting other people do the thinking for us. Motivation or drive isnt necessary when your teacher tells you to do your homework or your boss tells you to fill out the reports. You just do it because thats what youve always done. Its become second nature. But the problem with this is that it doesnt allow for you to rely on yourself.

When you take your life into your own hands, you have to be the decision-maker over everything, and that can be overwhelming. But, ultimately, you will become stronger because of it.

Your life is defined by your actions. You have a choice today, just like any other day.

Do you choose to be your best? Or do you choose to falter?

Walk Away From Ease

Ease is BAD. It pervades our culture, no matter where we go. Its great to see the advancements in technology. 3D printers blow my mind. But with all the good that is coming from these advancements, there is also harm that is being done.

The ability to access anything whenever we want kills our ability to delay gratification and moves us closer to ease.

We move in this direction because we are hardwired to do so. For almost the entire history of human beings, we didnt have enough. Food was scarce, water was scarce, and life was scarce. People always wanted more than what they had because everyone was trying to survive.

This has now become hardwired into our minds. But within the past 100 years or so, people have started to have enough.

Suburbs started popping up, societies were molded, and people started thriving.

But we all carry those ancient genes within us. So now, instead of trying to harvest more grain for the winter, we try to get more money or we get a better house. Its an innately human thing.

We are always trying to go towards safety and comfort. So walking away from ease actually goes against millions of years of evolution. The act of rewiring your brain towards disliking ease and embracing challenges is going to be tough, but its necessary.

Anyone who has achieved at a high level will tell you that they could not get there if they did not embrace the struggle.

Leonardo Da Vinci is arguably the greatest master of all time, and he utilized an expression that helped him walk away from ease. Its called

Ostinato Rigore

[This expression] translates as stubborn rigor or tenacious application. For every project he involved himself in and by the end of his life they numbered in the thousands he repeated this to himself, so he would attack each one with the same vigor and tenacity.

[You must] cultivate a kind of pleasure in pain like an athlete, you come to enjoy rigorous practice, pushing past your limits, and resisting the easy way out. - Robert Greene, Mastery

His mastery did not come because he went to the theater every weekend or did whatever else people did in Italy during the Renaissance period. Instead, he worked diligently. He constantly pushed himself and knew his diligence would pay off.

Ostinato Rigore is a phrase that reminds us all that we must work hard and feel pain. As tough as it may sound, we are fully capable of embracing Ostinato Rigore . If you consider the fact that we are living in the most comfortable time in human history, its easy to see that theres plenty of room to walk away from ease and towards pain.