“When a man asks you to walk a mile with him, go two miles” (Bible)
Going the extra mile is one principle that cuts across every person who has achieved astounding success.
For anyone to succeed and achieve the six strengths highlighted below, you have to go the extra mile.
The six success strengths achieved through going the extra mile
Sound Physical Health: It’s very easy to fall into careless eating, as many do, but to experience good health, you would have to go the extra mile; watching what you eat, spending time exercising etc.
Peace of Mind: To enjoy peace of mind, you have to intentionally remove things that can pollute your mind. You have to go the extra mile in ensuring that you remove negativity from your conscious environment.
Labour of Love: If you truly are passionate about something, you would go the extra mile in making it a reality. You would put in your all to ensure it’s a reality.
Freedom from Fear & Worry: To experience freedom from worry, you have to consciously remove worry & fear from your daily life.
Positive Mental Attitude: Having a positive mental attitude is crucial to experiencing more opportunities. Thus, you have to take the extra step of removing negative influences around you.
Material Things: To experience success in gaining material wealth, you must go the extra mile at all times, beyond what is expected of you.
The art of going the extra mile is the habit of doing better quality work and more quantity work in a pleasing mental positive habit.
There are Six significant I’s of going the extra mile.
1. Initiative
When you constantly go the extra mile, you develop great personal initiative. You tend to develop ideas and introduce solutions with your capacity. And consistently going the extra mile would greatly hone your skills for taking the initiative.
2. Innovative
When you consistently go the extra mile, you tend to become innovative; that is, you innovate more often than not. You must continually raise new ideas and solutions, sharpening your mental capacity and increasing your stamina for more challenges. This is simply because you went the extra mile.
3. Inspirational
By consistently going the extra mile, you become motivated from within. You draw inspiration from within. You no longer have to wait for external influences to motivate you to take action. Instead, you find yourself leading, pushing, motivating and inspiring yourself (and others) into taking action.
4. Imaginative/ Intuition
Anyone who works just enough, anyone who says “I am not paid for that”, would find it hard to experience success. You only begin to rise when you are willing to go the extra mile. By going the extra mile, you tell society that you are willing and capable of receiving more and acting on it.
5. Independence / Insightful
When you constantly go the extra mile and do more than is asked of you, you become self-reliant. You become insightful, able to see things other people ordinarily would not see. You become a visionary. You start breaking boundaries that have held others before.
6. Impactful
When you consistently go the extra mile, you become insightful. Everyone you come in contact with appreciates the impact you leave on them. You speak with influence. You exhibit intellectual prowess. If you develop it as a habit, you become more than you were. You become a genius.
Jim Rohn said, “If you are not doing more than you are paid for, then you will never be paid more for what you do.”
Nature created us with the beauty of continuous expansion. Throughout the history of man, we have continually explored numerous ways to expand and advance humanity.
Our minds are created to desire expansion; the way to do it is the fine art of going the extra mile. You find it easier to focus entirely on your goals, even exceeding them.
Going the extra mile helps you to build your mastermind. You begin to attract help while you are expanding as an Individual. Equally, because everyone around you is giving you confidence, you gain increased trust in yourself.
For young persons, when it comes to your career, endeavour to go the extra mile consistently. When I worked in the banking sector, I constantly came in early and left as late as possible. I was not doing this to curry favour. I did it because I had the personality of going the extra mile.
Every opportunity you get to work, do it as if you own the company. Everything you are assigned, do it the way the boss would do it.
When it comes to your personal development, understand that life is transactional. The more credit you put out, the more opportunities you get.
Do note that the best thing to do when going the extra mile is to do it as an end in itself. There should be no expectation of any return. This guarantees high spirits.
I will leave you with this quote by Nelson Mandela;
“During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society where all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
— Nelson Mandela
