Win by being average. Consistently.

Just an ordinary day. Or maybe not. Picasso was average. Picasso was very very average. Like 99.78% of the time - he was meh. And that is where his greatness lies.

I was at a workshop recently, and the speaker talked about Picasso, known for his masterpieces. He mentioned that Picasso created around 47,800 pieces of art, including sculptures, illustrations, and paintings.

This means he made about one and a half pieces of art per day throughout his life. Out of those 47,800 pieces, only 100 are considered great, and just 6 are masterpieces. So, 106 out of 47,000. Such a tiny percentage.

Yet, his legacy is tied to those 106 pieces. That means 0.22% of everything he ever did was considered noteworthy. Picasso.

If Picasso produced 1 piece of art every day for 15 months... only 1 of those pieces would be considered great.

Think about that. Want to be the Picasso of your field... are you ok with being average? Can you be consistently average?

If you wrote 500 songs, and only 1 was great. You would be the Picasso of songwriting.

Picasso reached those masterpieces because he produced so much work. He didn't know which pieces would become famous or valuable; he just kept creating because that's who he was. His average work wasn't always great or even good, but his habit of creating every day led to greatness.

Many of us want to create masterpieces right away. We want to write the best song or story, or create the most viral social media post. This pressure often stops us from doing anything at all. We think if it's not going to be great, it's not worth doing. But we need to embrace our average work because it leads to greatness.

Dave Ramsey mentioned a book that three billionaires recommended to him as crucial to their success - you would think its some big secret but it was something we all read as kids: Aesop’s Fable: The Tortoise and the Hare.

The lesson is that slow, consistent work toward a goal outperforms fast but inconsistent efforts.

How can we be consistent?

Even if it's slow, we should aim to improve a little bit each day. Instead of setting big goals that end up being overwhelming, focus on having average, ordinary days consistently. We can do average.

Define your average. Pick one or a few hobbies that move you forward.

For example, if your goal is to learn how to write and record songs, then writing every day and learning something new about recording each day - over the years - will get you further to your goal than trying to do it all at once.

Unfortunately, we often expect immediate returns for our efforts. But like farmers planting seeds, we need patience and consistency without expecting instant results.

In this new year, instead of rushing like the rabbit in the story, let's consider being the turtle. Focus on small steps in areas like health, wealth, relationships, and personal growth. Slow and consistent might be the new fast.

Whatever your goals are, remember that even Picasso was average most of the time - like 99.78% of the time. His greatness (0.22%) came from being consistently average over many years. Are we patient enough for that?

Whatever your goal is.

How consistently average can you be at it?

what do you want to be great at, 10 years from now?

The secret of success: Baby steps…every day in one direction.

My next challenge… is figuring out which direction.