The extra mile

People always say that if you want to succeed in life you have to be prepared to go the extra mile.How does one do it and what exactly is the extra mile.? I have pondered on this and have come up with some thoughts :
1.Your character.
What sort of person would you consider yourself to be? Well balanced ? Knowledgeable? Caring? Considerate? Easy to get along with? ( Confucius said ,if you can count your friends by the fingers in your hands you are fortunate),Reliable and dependable ? a Role model?
Right,then knowing some of the qualities which we think should be possessed do we take the trouble to analyze what aspect we lack and work towards acquiring these traits? Or do we just let off a big sigh and say " We are like that".That is the difference between the extra miler and the loser.
2.How you lead your life.
Are you easily satisfied ? Do you currently have your comfort zone from which you would reluctantly want to move out of? Do you feel that you have enough of what are important to you? Do you want to continuously seek new information, new knowledge?Do you want to push yourself all the time.?If you walk two rounds ,do you think of three or four or five?If you sllep till 10 on holidays ,do you make an effort to be up by 6 and therein have time to enjoy the crisp morning air and watch the sunrise?Do you continuosly strive to improve yourself mentally,physically,psychologically ,socially and personally?
3.Your lifestyle and life attitude.
Do you like challenges? Do you strive to be the best in whatever you do? Are you prepared to push yourself physically and mentally? Do you set goals for yourself and strive to continuosly improve yourself?Complacency is dangerous because then you will come to a stage when you feel that life has no more meaning.There are so many ways we can improve..to the ones closest to us we can always think of how we can treat them better and show that we care in so many different ways.Trouble is sometimes we never think of these things and more often take them for granted.Making yourself a better person to the ones who mean most to you is one of life's challenges and is always the catalyst for self improvement and self realization.Do you remember how you treated your loved ones when you first got to know them? Do you still treat them that way? The relationship between two persons is always special and the magic of the early days of their relatonship should always be treasured and preserved.We should never lose the romance that we had ,in fact it should be nurtured and its magic must never be lost.
I have always believed in challenging the norms like sometimes I hear somebody saying that so and so does this or does not do this because he is old.Then I ask how old? And when i hear he is in the sixties or fifties then I realise that at 70 I must be antique .People say you cant drive long distances when you are old.i regularly drive up and down KL- Ipoh and can still manage it,still work 6 to 7 hours a day and play golf at least twice a week and work out at the driving range at least twice a week.Mind over matter? Age just a number? If you think you can do it, you can ..all these are the ingredients for positive thinking and challenging the accepted paradigms and great people love to challeng the accepted norms .Look at some of the world leaders and notable people ,in the 60s ,70s and 80s and still achieving great things.This should be our inspiration.
On a physical note we have heard of people pushing themselves to the limits like going without food for days,trekking up mountains or deep jungle ,showing exceptional strength when necessary.This shows that physically we do not fuction to our maximum capacity and perhaps this makes us fall short of our real capacity as human beings.Mentally too ,many of us do not reach our maximum because of complacency and other reasons like laziness etc.
Man's potential is under utilized and to make greater and better use of it we need to have the right mind set and the right motivation .That's what it means by going the exra mile ,only special people have this quality.