Editor’s Note: This is a guest article from Stuart of Improved Lives ^[1].

There is a problem with the way most of us see the world: we want to be average. It’s ingrained in to us that it’s bad to deviate from the norm. Who really wants to be normal though?

Is it your goal in life to be completely normal, to get a white collar office job, move to the suburbs, and buy a lot of stuff you don’t need? It’s certainly not my idea of an ideal life, and I don’t think it’s anyone else’s either, it’s just the only model that’s available to us, so we go along with it because no one ever offers us a different path through life.

I would like to tell you about a different path.

Positive psychology and the study of extraordinary people

Positive psychology is a fairly new branch of psychology that, instead of studying average people, studies exceptional, successful people.

When you think about this, it makes a lot of sense. Finding out everything there is to know about the average person is of little benefit to anyone. Finding out about exceptional people though, that’s something that we could all really benefit from.

So how do exceptional, successful people differ from the average person? Here’s how:

• Persistence – Exceptional people are stubbornly persistent, and continue to strive for their goals and work diligently through everything that life can throw at them.
• Creative - Exceptional people are creators. They listen, ask a lot of questions, and connect a lot of dots together to come up with big ideas.
• Contribute – Exceptional people contribute meaningful things to the world around them. If you think about it, all the most admired people throughout history contributed something of immense value to the human race.
• Focus – Exceptional people are focused. They love what they do and they don’t have time for distractions and cheap entertainment.
• Passion - Exceptional people are passionate about their work and their lives. They would gladly do what they do for free, and many do just that. The ironic thing is that when you’re passionate about something, it’s often the case that someone will start trying to pay you to do it.
• Practice – Exceptional people practice, a lot. Most people who dominate their field, whether their field is chess, swimming, or writing, practice hard for about 10 years before they achieve that level of success.

Above all, exceptional people are not afraid to be unique, and they’re not afraid to fail. They question conventional rules and put little stock in what everyone else is doing. Put simply, they trust themselves.

How to take action

First, make peace with the fact that you wont ever be average again. Commit mentally to a mindset of uniqueness and fearlessness, and become comfortable with the fact that you will inevitably stand out from the crowd, to some people in a positive way, and others in a negative way.

The next thing to do is to start taking action.

Most people want to know how to take action. They think sure, those are all the qualities of exceptional people, but how do I get there from where I am?

The answer is simple, you just start. Don’t overthink it, don’t plan out every little detail because plans change, just start taking action now. You probably know what the first step is, you just have a million little reasons not to take it. So instead of worrying needlessly, just throw all the little reasons out and start. Now!

About the Author

This is a guest post by Stu, who writes about how to use psychology for personal growth over at Improved Lives ^[2]. He is the author of posts such as 112 Quick and Easy Personal Growth Exercises ^[3] and 5 Happiness Boosting Exercises ^[4]: Which Ones Work and Which Ones Don’t Do Anything.

If you’d like to write a guest post and get your message out there follow this link ^[5].

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