Marcel Deer
You know that TV show cliché when the dad gets down on one knee to look his kid in the face and say, “You can be anything you want to be, even the president? ”
Well, based on the fact that only 45 men have ever been President of the USA, and no women (yet!), we can assume that this cliché is just darned wrong.
Being destined for greatness doesn’t happen to everyone. In fact, if it did, then we wouldn’t call it greatness, just normality.
Some people do end up becoming great, however, and many of them believe that it was their destiny all along.
So, how do you know if you’re one of the few who will go on to do incredible things?
These eight signs you’re destined for more than what your current life offers can certainly point you in the right direction!
1) You put in the work.
Unlike other people who seem to do just the bare minimum, you actually put tons of effort into the things that you do.
You’re not trying to just make people think you’re doing a good job, but you actually do one.
When you go to the gym, you don’t waste all your time flexing and posing – you get pumped.
When you’re at work, you’re focused, motivated, and on point… not only when the boss drops by!
In other words, you have the drive and motivation to put in a huge amount of effort that most other people lack.
Life is short, so you never think of doing anything halfway.
This is a good sign that you’re on your way up toward bigger and better things.
2) You’re oozing with luck.
Hey, don’t hate! Some people just have it, and some don’t.
Luck, that is.
Success comes from a combination of drive, hard work, and skill but also plain old dumb luck.
Imagine two guitar players who both practice hard, become technically great, and want to hit the big time. One might just end up being in the right place at the right time with the right look and sound to become a star.
The other?
Not so lucky.
I’m not saying you have a lucky horseshoe shoved into some part of your body, but you may still recognize some lucky breaks you’ve had in the past that have changed your life.
Be thankful for them because, as we all know, luck can turn!
3) You embrace failure.
Renowned chef Wolfgang Puck says, “Success is having your best day every day.”
And you might think he’s successful just because he’s a great chef, but that’s not how he sees it.
He’s also been quoted as saying, “I learned more from the one restaurant that didn’t work than from all the ones that were successes.”
So many people out there live in perpetual fear of failure. They don’t push themselves to try new and hard things because they don’t want to blow it and end up feeling like an idiot.
But failure can actually be an outstanding teacher if you’re willing to open yourself up to its lessons.
As Wolfgang explained, you can learn a ton from failing about what not to do next time. And sometimes, that’s the only way to actually learn what you’re doing wrong if there’s no one or nothing telling you how to do things the right way.
If you’re happy for the failures in your life that have taught you some hard truths, you may well be destined to keep forging on toward success.
4) You take risks.
It’s pretty simple.
If you stay in your comfort zone, sticking with the same job, people, activities, and ideas as you’ve always done, how would you get to a place outside of where you are in life?
On the other hand, if you constantly try new things and push yourself, yes, you risk failure, but you also risk succeeding!
If you’re destined for more than what your current life offers, you’ll very likely have to take some big risks to get it. Even if your dream is just to win the lottery to set yourself up for life, you still have to risk your money.
You have to pay to play!
Your risks might be in your career or your side hustle, in your art, or in your love life. Whatever it is you’re risking, at least you’re putting something in so that you might be able to come away with a big win.
5) You’re unreasonable.
OK, I know that doesn’t sound very nice, but I couldn’t think of a better way to say it.
Normal, reasonable people accept what they’re told by society. They listen when others warn them away from certain actions, and they agree to the boundaries placed on them.
They accept it when people tell them, “You’re too old for that,” or “It doesn’t make any sense to do it that way.”
But people who are destined for greatness laugh off these suggestions.
When they get ideas in their heads, they don’t stop because someone tells them they’re not going to work. When people tell them they can’t do something, they don’t listen.
They’re driven by something else, and it’s this drive they listen to.
So yeah, if you’re this kind of person, you might be generally considered unreasonable, but you might also have a unique perspective that leads you to achieve a whole lot more.
6) You never stop learning.
You know that most people go to school for their education, right?
So why have you long since graduated but are still studying new things each and every day?
It must be that you have an insatiable curiosity and a drive to learn as much as you can about the world. Well, if it’s true that knowledge is power, you’re building up quite a supreme command of life!
People who continue to learn, expand their thoughts and ideas, and develop themselves tend to go very far in this world, while people who don’t tend to stay where they are or even backslide.
Your continuing education doesn’t have to come in the form of classes and courses, though it can. You may have a thirst for knowledge you can get from online videos, conversations with wise people, or experiential learning.
But if you have this itch to keep learning that can’t ever seem to be suitably scratched, you may be destined not only to know a lot but to use what you learn to get you a whole lot more out of life.
7) You’re open.
Do I mean open for business?
Actually, I do, but also open to a whole lot more than that as well.
We all know people who get very closed off.
For example, I have a friend who’s a brilliant machinist and inventor. Ask him about how to make any machine or consumer product, and he’ll be able to speak on it for hours if you let him.
It’s not just knowledge of techniques and processes, either. He has a huge amount of experience and has lots of creative ideas to keep coming up with new inventions.
Surely, this sounds like someone destined for the big time, right?
Except that, he’s basically a hermit.
He’s a bit older and has become really cynical and unfriendly. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, or even at all. He has retreated into a really small life with few friends and little contact with the outside world.
Because he’s so closed off, I bet he could invent one of the most brilliant machines in history, and hardly anyone would hear about it. He refuses to make connections that could allow him to leverage his ideas and lead to big success.
If he were open to people, ideas, and experiences, on the other hand, I think he’d really go far.
8) You follow through.
It’s not only important in baseball and golf, you know!
Following through means taking action when you have inspiration and good ideas.
I mean, anyone can come up with great ideas, but unless they’re followed up and implemented, they don’t gain any traction and don’t lead to anything in the real world.
Imagine if Bill Gates had just thought about a new operating system for computers but never put it down in digital digits. Would he have ended up becoming a tech giant?
If, on the other hand, you come up with something brilliant and throw yourself into it, it just might go somewhere.
People who follow through on their ideas will, not always but sometimes, get a lot more out of life.
Final thoughts
Do you recognize these eight signs you’re destined for more than what your current life offers?
If most of them ring true, you might just be one of those rare few people who become truly great.
All you have to do is keep learning, working, and striving, and you’re going to find out one of these days!
