How to Be Great: 16 Proven Ways to Reach Your Potential
Science of People Team 20 min read
In This Article
Want to be great? These science-backed principles will help you reach your potential and achieve extraordinary results in your chosen field.
Sometimes, when you see a truly amazing person speak or watch a mind-blowing TED talk, you feel a rush of inspiration run through your body. You wonder, “How on earth did that person become who they are today?”
We know greatness when we see it.
The journey from being good to being great is one that many aspire to but few complete. Learning how to be great requires consistent application of proven principles over time.
What if there was a formula to achieve extraordinary results—a blueprint for becoming great that anyone could follow? That’s exactly what we’ll explore together.
What is Greatness?
Being great means achieving exceptional results, making meaningful contributions, and standing out through your actions, talents, and character.
Being great is a quality that transcends the ordinary.
You may be the type of person who takes inspiration and runs with it. Or you may be the type who looks on admiringly, assuming you’ll never be like that. Ask yourself:
- Are you a leader?
- Are you a follower?
Here’s the truth: You do NOT have to be a leader to be great. Greatness is essential for both leaders and followers.
So, you might be asking yourself: **“**How do I become great at everything I do?” Can you be a great follower? A great leader?
True greatness involves sustained excellence over time. It’s the difference between a one-hit wonder and a legendary artist with a decades-long career of influential work.
The Science Behind Greatness
Research (source) from the field of high performance shows that greatness emerges from consistent application of specific principles rather than innate talent alone.
As the saying goes, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
According to studies (source)(PsychologicalReview).pdf by psychologist Anders Ericsson, even those considered “naturals” in their fields achieved greatness through thousands of hours of deliberate practice.
The path to becoming great isn’t reserved for a select few born with special gifts. While natural talent provides a starting point, dedication, strategic practice, and psychological resilience are far more predictive of achieving greatness than initial ability.
Ready to achieve greatness in your social skills? Transform the way you connect, communicate, and influence others with our course:
16 Proven Tips to Be Great and Reach Your Potential
Let’s explore the science-backed strategies that can help anyone transition from being good to being great. These principles work across various domains, from athletics to business to the arts.
Create a Vision
Think about what you want to create in your life and how you want to live—as if anything is possible. Without a crystal clear vision of what you are going to accomplish, you won’t know where to start. If you need to try on a few ideas before you commit, go ahead, but take action and start creating something you are excited about.
The clearest visions often emerge from quiet reflection—try dedicating 20 minutes in a peaceful environment to let your authentic aspirations surface.
Greatness Action Step: Learn my Science of Goal-Setting where I will walk you through a step-by-step way to create your vision.
Turn Adversity Into Advantage
Adversity serves as a choice point for each one of us. We can choose to play into a victim mindset and give our power away, or we can use challenges as opportunities to learn, grow and become stronger. As soon as you realize you have a choice in adversity, you also realize you are in control.
Some of history’s greatest achievements emerged directly from setbacks—Thomas Edison’s lightbulb followed thousands of “unsuccessful” attempts, which he viewed not as failures but as discoveries of what didn’t work.
Greatness Action Step: What do all top performers know? They are able to turn averageness into greatness. Dr. Stan Beecham works with world renown athletes and has found patterns in how great achievers think.
Cultivate a Champion’s Mindset
An unshakeable belief in yourself and your potential may sound like a tall order, but it’s 100% possible to create. In fact, it’s essential if you want to graduate from average to great. Reconnect with your strengths, your passion and your ambition and cement those into your mindset.
Consider creating a personal success mantra—a short, powerful phrase that captures your capability and potential—and repeat it during challenging moments to reinforce your champion’s mindset.
Greatness Action Step: Stop and take stock of everything you learned in your life. Have you ever felt greatness? A few years ago I sat down to review everything I have learned. Read mine and do the same for yourself.
Develop Hustle
If you are going to be great, you have to be willing to do what average people are unwilling to do. Hustle means sacrifice, sweat, hard work, long days and crazy determination—but it’s also worth it. When you hustle you are in good company; it’s how all the A players got to where they are.
The key distinction between productive hustle and burnout lies in purpose: hustle energized by meaningful goals creates momentum, while hustle for its own sake leads to exhaustion.
Greatness Action Step: Anyone who has achieved greatness knows how much went into their journey. But we don’t always see it. Here is the most personal talk I have ever given. It is the story of my hustle:
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Master Your Body
Despite all the noise about what the best workout and diet truly is, it’s less important that you find the perfect rules to follow and more important that you are conscious of your body and health everyday. The truth is, that your body is the vehicle that allows you to do what you were born to do. Once you respect that, you’ll find the discipline to take care of your body and constantly work on improving it.
When we think of greatness, we often think about outward behaviors—making to do lists, achieving goals. But what you put in your body is just as important. Do you eat great food? Have a great diet?
Pay special attention to your sleep quality. Cognitive performance, creativity, and emotional regulation all decline significantly with even modest sleep deprivation.
Greatness Action Step: Learn the science of eating. Your food is fuel for your great works. In this resource guide we analyze how you can set your eating habits up for success. For example you will learn:
- How the best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on
- How food can equal pleasure
- My favorite food hacks
Practice Positive Habits
We are all experts at forming and keeping habits—some of them are good and a lot of them are bad. A huge part of greatness is using our ability to form habits to our advantage. It takes a lot of energy to make decisions all day long, so the more good habits you can create, the less energy you have to spend on deciding what to do for every part of your day.
Start with what I like to call “gateway habits”—small, manageable changes that create a foundation for larger transformations and build your self-efficacy for tackling more challenging habits.
Greatness Action Step: Get motivated to change your bad habits! Learn my 10 steps for getting motivated (using science!)
Build a Winning Team
Playing solo (AKA perfectionism) might have gotten you this far, but it’s not going to get you to your full potential. The best and biggest accomplishments are never achieved by a single person. Invest in the right kinds of relationships that complement your weaknesses and allow you to focus on your strengths.
Consider creating a personal “board of directors”: a small, diverse group of trusted advisors with different perspectives who can offer guidance on major decisions and challenge your thinking when needed.
Greatness Action Step: Learn this INCREDIBLE team-building psychology guide. If you are on a team or lead a team, this resource is a must!
Watch our video below to learn how to build a dream team with Shane Snow:
Live a Life of Service
You can achieve greatness by just focusing on pursuing your own selfish interests, but it’s not going to feel great. You’ll discover quickly that greatness which only serves you is empty. Build giving back and serving others into every part of your journey and you’ll find fulfillment and happiness long before you reach your goal of greatness.
Acts of service can release endorphins that not only feels good but reduces stress and may even extend your lifespan, literally making generosity a performance-enhancing activity!
Greatness Action Step: Do a kindness challenge! Our comprehensive guide offers 62 unique ways to be a nicer person.
Embrace Continuous Learning
The world’s top performers understand that knowledge compounds over time. Always be a student, even when you become a master in your field. Reading books, taking courses, seeking out mentors, and exposing yourself to new ideas keeps your mind fresh and gives you an edge over those who believe they already know everything.
What separates the great from the good is often their information diet:
- What they read
- Who they listen to
- Which questions they ask
- How they process feedback
Strategic learning often means exploring adjacent fields to the one you specialize in. The most innovative breakthroughs frequently occur at the intersection of disciplines where you can apply concepts from one domain to solve problems in another.
Greatness Action Step: Check out our article on making a learning bucket list to create a structured plan for your ongoing education.
Develop Deep Focus
In our distraction-filled world, the ability to concentrate deeply is becoming increasingly rare and valuable. Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work,” found that the most successful people across fields share an ability to focus intensely for extended periods. Developing this skill gives you an immediate competitive advantage.
Try designing your environment to make it easier to drop into a flow state quickly. This could be a particular playlist, desk arrangement, or even a special candle to signal to your brain it’s time for concentrated work.
Greatness Action Step: Read our science-backed guide on focus to learn proven techniques for eliminating distractions and achieving deeper concentration, or watch our free goal-setting webinar:
Master Consistency and Repeatability
Consistency trumps intensity nearly every time. As “Atomic Habits” author James Clear puts it, “Success is not about taking massive action once; it’s about taking consistent action repeatedly.” The seemingly small actions, when done consistently, lead to remarkable results through the power of compounding.
Even the most accomplished individuals experience motivation fluctuations. The difference is they’ve built systems that carry them through low-energy periods, relying on pre-commitment and environmental design rather than willpower alone.
Greatness Action Step: Choose one daily “keystone action” that moves you toward greatness in your field. It could be practicing a specific skill, making three sales calls, or writing 500 words. Track your streak on a calendar and don’t break the chain for 30 days.
Practice Deliberate Practice
Not all practice is created equal. Anders Ericsson’s research (source) reveals that great performers engage in “deliberate practice”—highly structured activities designed to improve performance in specific areas. This type of practice:
- Pushes you just beyond your comfort zone
- Provides immediate feedback
- Requires full concentration
- Focuses on technique refinement
- Includes specific goals
Greatness Action Step: Think you need 10,000 hours to master something? Think again! Read our article debunking this common myth and learn how to make less hours count for more.
Celebrate Small Wins
Progress fuels motivation, not the other way around. Research from Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile shows that recording and celebrating small wins dramatically increases motivation and performance. Great achievements are built on the foundation of countless small victories.
By acknowledging progress (even the most modest ones), you’re creating small dopamine boosts that reinforce your efforts and create a positive feedback loop between achievement and motivation.
Greatness Action Step: Start a “wins journal.” Each evening for the next week, write down three small wins from your day, no matter how modest. Notice how this simple practice changes your perception of progress and fuels your motivation for the next day.
Find Your Unique Strengths
Greatness emerges when you align your efforts with your natural abilities. Rather than trying to fix all your weaknesses, focus on leveraging what makes you exceptional.
As renowned management consultant Peter Drucker noted, “It takes far less energy to move from first-rate performance to excellence than it does to move from incompetence to mediocrity.”
The pursuit of well-rounded abilities often leads to mediocrity across the board—the truly exceptional become deliberately unbalanced, investing disproportionately in their natural talents while finding ways to delegate, automate, or eliminate activities that drain their energy.
Greatness Action Step: Take a strengths assessment like CliftonStrengths or VIA. Then interview three people who know you well, asking: “When have you seen me at my best?” Look for patterns across their answers to identify your unique areas of natural talent.
Practice Resilience Through Setbacks
Every path to greatness includes failures and setbacks. What separates those who achieve greatness from those who don’t is how they respond to these inevitable challenges. Build your resilience muscles by:
- Viewing setbacks as temporary, not permanent
- Seeing failures as event-specific, not universal
- Taking responsibility without self-blame
- Finding the lesson in every disappointment
Resilience is skill that strengthens with practice. Each time you bounce back from adversity, you’re rewiring your brain to respond more effectively to future challenges.
Greatness Action Step: Explore our complete guide on building frustration tolerance and resilience to develop the mental toughness needed to persevere through challenges on your path to greatness!
Master Nonverbal Influence
To elevate your greatness, let’s learn from the most advanced book on body language, Cues. Subtle body language signals can amplify your presence and impact. Try these three cues:
- The Head Tilt: Slightly tilt your head during conversations to signal warmth and approachability, fostering trust.
- The Power Pause: Pause briefly before responding to emphasize confidence and draw attention to your words.
- The Steeple Gesture: Clasp your hands with fingertips touching to project authority during presentations.
Greatness Action Step: Practice one cue daily for a week in social interactions and observe how others respond. For deeper insights, read Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards.
Case Studies of Greatness
The School of Greatness: Lewis Howes’ Journey
Lewis Howes began as a rejected, awkward student who struggled in school with few friends. After discovering his passion for sports, he channeled his energy into athletics, achieving success in football and decathlon, even breaking a world record.
His path changed dramatically after a career-ending injury left him recovering on his sister’s couch, broke and directionless. Rather than giving up, Lewis learned new skills and built a multi-million dollar online marketing consultancy in just a few years.
Still seeking greater purpose, he sold his half of the company and focused on making a meaningful impact by serving others. This led to the creation of The School of Greatness podcast, where he interviews the brightest minds about what creates greatness.
Today, his podcast has millions of downloads and features conversations with influential figures like Tony Robbins, Julianne Hough, and Arianna Huffington. I was honored to be on Lewis’ podcast a few months ago:
As a summary of the lessons he has learned in greatness so far and as a way to give back to an even bigger audience, he wrote a book, “The School of Greatness”, sharing the most important things he has learned to achieve greatness.
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From Dancing Prodigy to Business Mogul: Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland’s path to greatness is a testament to resilience and determination. Growing up in challenging circumstances, she didn’t begin ballet until age 13—extraordinarily late by professional standards. Despite being told she had the “wrong body type” and started too late, Copeland persevered through injuries and rejections.
In 2015, she shattered barriers by becoming the first African American woman promoted to principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history. But Copeland’s greatness extends beyond dance. She’s leveraged her platform to author books, create a clothing line, and become a powerful advocate for diversity in ballet.
Her story exemplifies several greatness principles: turning adversity into advantage, developing a champion’s mindset, and cultivating resilience through setbacks. By embracing what made her different rather than conforming to traditional expectations, Copeland transformed ballet while creating a multifaceted career with lasting impact.
Teaching Greatness: How Salman Khan Democratized Education
Salman Khan’s journey to greatness began with a simple act of service—tutoring his cousin in mathematics via video chat. When other relatives asked for similar help, Khan started creating YouTube tutorials in 2006, recording them in a closet after his day job as a hedge fund analyst.
These humble videos, created without fancy equipment or formal teaching credentials, unexpectedly went viral. Rather than monetizing this success through traditional means, Khan quit his lucrative finance career to focus on his vision: providing free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
The result was Khan Academy, which now reaches over 140 million students across 190 countries in 51 languages. What began as simple tutoring videos has expanded into a comprehensive learning platform covering subjects from basic math to college-level courses.
Khan’s story illustrates the power of several greatness principles: creating a vision, living a life of service, finding unique strengths, and building a winning team. By focusing on how he could help others rather than personal gain, he transformed education and created a legacy that continues to grow in impact.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Becoming Great
What separates great people from good people?
Great performers engage in structured, purposeful practice while average performers practice without clear focus. Those who achieve greatness connect their work to meaningful purposes beyond personal success, creating sustainability through challenges.
They understand that consistent, moderate effort produces better results than sporadic intensity. Additionally, great performers maintain a growth mindset—viewing challenges as opportunities to improve. While good performers focus on outcomes, great performers concentrate on the process of improvement itself.
How long does it take to become great at something?
The path to greatness varies significantly by domain and individual. While the “10,000-hour rule” was once popular, recent research has debunked this oversimplified approach. Quality and type of practice matter far more than just accumulating hours.
Some achieve remarkable performance in 3-5 years through targeted deliberate practice, while others take longer. What’s consistent is that greatness requires sustained, deliberate effort—there are no overnight success stories. The journey should be measured in consistent improvement rather than just time invested.
Can anyone become great?
Genetics and natural talent provide different starting points, creating varying levels of advantage. However, research shows that deliberate practice, psychological resilience, and strategic skill development explain the largest portion of performance variance among experts.
Importantly, greatness doesn’t require being “the best in the world”—it means achieving remarkable personal excellence and making meaningful contributions. With this definition, most people can achieve greatness in well-chosen domains that align with their natural inclinations through deliberate application of evidence-based principles.
What daily habits lead to greatness?
High performers maintain structured morning rituals that prepare them mentally and physically for peak performance. They dedicate specific time for deliberate practice—focused improvement of skills directly related to their domain. Regular reflection through journaling or structured review allows them to extract maximum learning from experiences.
Physical activity enhances cognitive function and creativity. Continuous learning through reading, courses, or mentorship provides fresh perspectives. Finally, they prioritize strategic rest and recovery, viewing sleep and downtime as essential rather than optional.
What holds people back from being great?
A fixed mindset—believing abilities are static rather than developable—creates artificial ceilings on achievement. Many struggle with comfort addiction, avoiding the necessary discomfort and challenge required for growth. Inconsistency derails progress when people practice sporadically rather than establishing sustainable rhythms.
Poor feedback loops limit development when people don’t seek or effectively use accurate performance information. Misalignment between chosen domains and natural strengths creates unnecessary struggle; greatness emerges more readily when we focus on areas where our unique abilities can shine.
How do you stay consistent on the path to greatness?
Effective consistency strategies include identity-based habits—framing actions as expressions of who you are rather than what you’re trying to achieve. Environmental design involves structuring your surroundings to make desired behaviors easier. Implementation intentions create specific if-then plans that anticipate challenges.
External accountability systems provide structure when internal motivation wavers. Many high performers employ habit stacking, attaching new behaviors to established routines. What unites these approaches is the recognition that consistency emerges from well-designed systems rather than willpower alone, making the right actions automatic rather than exhausting decisions.
Is greatness born or made?
Genetic factors influence performance capabilities, creating different baseline potentials across individuals. Yet these genetic influences aren’t deterministic—environmental factors activate or suppress genetic potential. The most compelling model is the “multiplier effect,” where genetic advantages combine with environmental opportunity and deliberate practice to create compounding returns.
This explains why some individuals with modest natural abilities achieve remarkable greatness through dedicated effort. In practical terms, while natural talent matters and creates different starting points, the development process ultimately determines who achieves greatness. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that greatness is developed through deliberate processes rather than simply inherited.
What sacrifices are required to be great?
Pursuing greatness demands strategic sacrifices. Time is the most significant—high performers dedicate substantial hours to deliberate practice beyond normal responsibilities. Social sacrifices involve being selective about relationships, surrounding yourself with people who elevate rather than drain your energy.
Comfort must frequently be sacrificed, as growth occurs outside comfort zones. Financial investments in education or skill development may be necessary early on. However, sustainable greatness doesn’t require sacrificing core values, important relationships, or health. The most successful make calculated sacrifices aligned with their values, creating a challenging but fulfilling path.
The Greatness Takeaway
Striving for greatness is about consistently applying proven principles that compound over time. Here are some of the most important things to remember on your path to becoming great:
- Create a compelling vision that gives meaning to your daily efforts
- Turn adversity into your teacher by extracting valuable lessons from challenges
- Cultivate a growth mindset that sees your abilities as developable through effort
- Commit to extraordinary effort in areas aligned with your natural strengths
- Optimize your physical health as the foundation for peak performance
- Design positive habits that make excellence your default behavior
- Build a supportive team that complements your weaknesses
- Connect your pursuit of greatness to service and meaningful contribution
- Embrace continuous learning to stay adaptable and gain cutting-edge insights
- Develop deep focus to produce exceptional work in a distraction-filled world
- Master consistency rather than relying on sporadic bursts of intense effort
- Practice deliberately to improve specific skills through structured techniques
- Celebrate small wins to maintain motivation through inevitable plateaus
- Leverage your unique strengths instead of fixing all your weaknesses
- Build resilience to bounce back stronger from setbacks and failures
For those wondering “how do I become great?” remember that greatness is a continuous journey of growth. By applying these principles consistently, you can transform from being good to truly being great in your chosen field.
Want to kickstart your path to greatness with some powerful inspiration? Check out our collection of 32 Best Inspirational Videos For Work & Motivation (2025).