Well, you’ll find a lot of motivational pieces of stuff in various books, magazines, and of course the internet. But I am going to write here about the thing that I feel is the most important to do during the preparation time, where the competition is neck to neck and no opponent is weak. The key to win is the extra mile you put in your efforts to succeed.

We live in a non-satiable world, where everyone wants to win. But only those who are more than willing to compromise their leisure hours and put efforts to reinforce their skills come out as champions. The sleepless nights, the early start of work, resisting the inertia of going easy on yourself count.

If you are an athlete, those extra skips, reps, pushup count. If you are an entrepreneur those additional risks you take on ideas you believe count. If you are in a relationship the extra effort you make to put down your ego and step forward to reconcile counts. If you are a student the discipline to study each day’s material the same day counts. These extra steps are required to be taken everywhere and every day.

We all know the greatest of the greatest Sachin Tendulkar. I still remember the media coverages whenever Indian cricket team used to go for overseas tournaments. Unlike him, almost all of the rest of the team members used to be seen shopping around and visiting places whereas he would be waking up early in the morning and practicing. His glory, his incredible statistics had come later, much later than those extra miles that he had taken.

The biggest factor that brings me that burst of energy during the close faceoffs is my adrenaline rush. Many factors lead to it. It might be surprising, but I have felt it whenever my nervousness finds me, my heart pounds heavily, and legs and hands feel weak, I find my adrenaline rush, and eventually, I perform better. My senses then work better then than during regular events. The best thing about it, it brings out the best in me. And to be honest, I love that feeling. I love that high. I would like that feeling to stay with me on and on.

But is putting that extra mile as easy as it is said? Definitely no. So, what to do about it. In sports, those are knowing the nuances of your game, and then taking that extra mile in the form of waking up early, subjecting yourself to painstaking practice sessions and tougher environments, in order to strengthen your strong areas and cover for your weak links. Hence, a very thorough understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, and the kind of contexts in which they work become very important. For that, a very high level of self-introspection is required.

How would I know that the effort we have put in up till a point is sufficient? The answer is you’ll never reach it. In today’s world to be the recognized one, to be the ace in your field you have to reinvent yourself quickly. You have to better with each day. There would always be a guy who would be working as hard or even more than you.

My personal experience says, the deeper you understand that there is always someone better than you and everyone is capable of being better than you any day, is the day you’ll learn to stay grounded. You’ll  realize that the only option you have is to work even harder, think constructively and take that extra mile. Staying grounded will help you grow in your both personal and professional life. Gathering motivation to work harder and bringing up more insights of your personality will help you to be more mindful. All in all, in the pursuit of taking that extra mile, your personality and aura will awestruck everyone around you. Some would argue that won’t such a life would be too much straining. But isn’t the moment of pain incurred would be worth of the glory of a lifetime.

To end it, I would quote a line that someone said, “Don’t hesitate to take an extra mile, it is never crowded there”.