Image by: Vironevaeh
By Ronnie Toofan

Last week, American athlete Michael Phelps rewrote history once again after winning his 23rd Olympic Gold Medal. His great achievement in swimming made me rethink my life.

While he was busy working his butt off improving his technical competence, I was also busy hunting and catching Pokemon. I am not judging myself or the million others who spend a lot of time playing the addictive mobile game, I just can’t help but think what made these great achievers and winners different from the rest of us.

I guess it’s their competence. It’s their solid determination to do more, do better and be where they want to be in life that separates them from others. The more time and effort you put in developing your skills and talents, the stronger, tougher and better you become.

Here are key competencies that you need to work on in order to live a more fulfilling and successful life.

Ability to Identify Life Lessons From Your Mistakes & Failures

Your mistakes and failures allow you to get to know yourself more, your capabilities, your limits, how you respond to challenges and how high your tolerance is to unintended consequences.

It also teaches you valuable lessons in life that you could never learn just by reading and observing the things around you. It lets you grow as a human being.

However, making mistakes especially when you’re facing the situation for the first time can be a very uncomfortable and a nerve-wracking experience. You have no idea how everything is going to turn out. It could either make you or ruin your chances of living the life that you want.

But guys, isn’t that the real essence of our journey? We make mistakes, we learn from them so that we can grow as individuals, increase our abilities in dealing with challenges and improve the quality of our life.

For instance, many couples prefer not to talk about their problems. They are afraid that it might trigger a big argument or it might aggravate their current situation. What they don’t know is that the more they ignore issues and sweep their problems under the rug the more they are causing irreparable damage to their relationships that could eventually lead to loss of love and excitement.

So, if you really want to keep the romance alive, face your problems and learn your lessons instead of avoiding them.

Ability to Set the Intention to Become What You Want to Be

Another way to level up your competency in life is to have the confidence and determination to pursue things that you truly desire. To do this, you need to set specific goals, short-term and long-term. Setting goals gives you a sense of direction and allows you to make the most out of your existence.

For example, everybody wants to achieve financial freedom but not everyone is serious in making money and saving up for their future.

If you’re really determined to have a stable financial life, then you should be working hard right now to reach these important money goals.

It’s essential to have these things in order by the time you reach your thirties so that you can be certain that you’ll enjoy your retirement and that you won’t end up relying on other people for help and paying debts for the rest of your life.

Willingness to Improve Your Overall Well-Being

Being fit and healthy can boost your confidence, which is necessary in gaining competence. It also helps in increasing your ability to do more in life and allows you to further develop your skills.

And to help you become more mentally fit, writer Sean Kim suggests trying these essential activities:

• Put more good fat in your body
• Socialize more
• Learn a new language
• Exercise consistently
• Plan ahead

Ability to Tolerate Little Distractions

Life isn’t about perfection, it’s about progress. So, don’t get easily distracted by simple things. Instead, you should try to keep things together, persevere and move on.

I used to let teeny-tiny, little impediments standing in my way bother me like running out of coffee, waiting for the elevator and traffic on the freeway. It is true that these small things can be really frustrating, but is there something that I can really do about it?

I realized that these things are beyond my control. And the best way for me to deal with them is to adjust my attitude, because if I don’t, I’ll just be ruining my chance to experience a happier and a more fulfilling day.

To help you attain your goals with ease and not be easily affected by unimportant things, check this out – “Why You Shouldn’t Let the Little Things Hold You Back From Your Dreams.”

Guys, your competence or your ability to accomplish your dreams depends on you and you alone. It is your responsibility to yourself to make sure that at the end of every day, you can confidently say that you have given it your best shot and that you are better today than you were yesterday.