How to go the extra mile to "reach the gold 3 feet away"

Have you ever heard this saying?

"Go the extra mile, it's never crowded there." (Dr. Wayne Dyer)

What does it mean to "go the extra mile" though? Sometimes we hear certain sayings so many times that it loses its meaning.

To go the extra mile you go beyond what is expected of you. Ed Mylett calls this the power of one more. A simple example of this is if you have to do 10 reps of an exercise at the gym, you do 11. If you have to run for 20 minutes, run for 21. The simple act of adding just one more to whatever you do will set you apart. Soon you will be running ahead of everyone else. You will be world class and part of the "1%" because most people are not willing to do one more.

In fact, most people quit right before they are about to succeed. There's a famous story (maybe not so famous if YOU haven't heard of it 😉) that tells how a gold miner stopped literally 3 feet right before he struck gold. Here's the excerpt from the incredible story from the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. 

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the gold fever in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills!  Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle!  Then something happened!  The vein of gold ore disappeared!  They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again— all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

The “Junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

That is what happens to SO MANY of us that decide to quit something just because the initial quick wins seem to disappear. We lose faith and patience and then we finally quit.

When you go the extra mile in everything you do you don't give yourself opportunity to fail. The only definition of failure then is quitting because as long as you are doing the best you can, going the extra mile doing "one more", then you are succeeding. This is so possible for you.

What if there was a way to rekindle this spirit of success in you that you maybe lost as you got older? A way to essentially train yourself to be a winner, not a quitter? Comment "winner" below if this intrigues you!

The only way to succeed at a goal is to give yourself no option to quit. "Burn the ships" and don't look back. Make the DECISION that you will push through. If we break down the meaning of the word decision we see that there are two parts to it. "De" and "cision". "De" means to eliminate, "cision" means to cut. So when you make a decision you cut off all other options. Do you ever feel like it is hard to stick to a decision? This is super normal, but it is vital to becoming part of the 1%. Training yourself to stick to your decisions will help you fulfil your goals. The good news is that it really is something you can train. Start by looking at the new years resolutions or goals you set for yourself at the beginning of 2023. You still have time to end the year strong!

Comment below to let me know some of the goals you have given up on that you would like to restart!