2019 is almost here. Before you blink your eyes again, it will be there. How was 2K18 for you? Did you make it your transformative year? Which of these habits were you able to adopt? We all have a choice – we can choose to rise above mediocrity, or we can choose to continue living an average life. It’s completely up to us to decide. There is no pressure to choose one over the other. In fact 95% of the population are pretty satisfied living an average life, completely ignorant to the fact that they are capable of much much more. Here are a few sure-shot signs that you are one of them:

1. You don’t set goals for yourself. Instead you only let life happen to you. You are pretty satisfied letting life happen to you. You are okay with it.
2. When you say you think about life, you are only thinking about career and finances.  
3. You start your mornings with news, social media, emails and WhatsApp.
4. You think that success is about saying yes to anything and everything.
5. You are always running after “things” and yet you don’t have time for anything. You don’t believe in “slowing down.”
6. You spend your entire lifetime doing things you never like.
7. You think that life is only about living paycheck to paycheck and paying off bills.
8. You live in a “reasonable and realistic” world, which is defined by your subjective realities and social constructs. And, you think that is the only way through.
9. Your excuses are bigger than your commitments.
10. Your family duties start and end with getting in the monthly salary.
11. You don’t invest in self-care. You think that self-care is being selfish.
12. You stop learning once you complete your formal education. You are the “know-it-all” person.
13. You believe that this is a world of scarcity and problems. You think everyone out there is waiting to harm you. For you to succeed, others need to falter.

Wait, I give you a choice here. You can either stop reading this article here and continue being mediocre. Or, you can choose to rise above your mediocrity. Remember, the way you start something is how you’ll end it. One of my mentors, Jim Kwik, once said, “How you do one thing is how you do anything.” My message to you for 2019 is this – don’t go overboard this year with your resolutions, promises, goals or habits. Just pick one of the above signs that most reflects the current you (even if you have more than one, just pick one) and focus on improving that area. Make each fresh day of this new year a little bit better than yesterday in this one area. Focus on your daily optimizations trusting that they will soon result in exponential results.

People who know me say that I can’t complete a conversation without a Robin Sharma quote. 🙂 Robin says, “Remember that life’s just too short to play small with your potential this new year.”

To the warrior within! Happy New Year!!