Because I Choose to Be

I am OUTSTANDING
not good great or excellent 
OUT - FREAKING - STANDING

About a year ago I decided to be excellent. I decided in fact that I would start each day as if it was destined to be the best day of my life. You see today is the best day of my life because it is the only day I have today.
     As I ran into people through any given day they would ask "How are you?" and I would answer great or excellent and occasionally I would get a response like wow but mostly no one noticed that I was excellent. 
     
     In July I saw Tony Robbins speak in Chicago and he was talking about being excellent and he said "Excellent is OK" but if you really stretch yourself you can be outstanding instead of excellent. "It's only about 2 millimeters above excellent" he said. It's a little bit like saying the 1st million is the hardest... It doesn't make the 2nd fall out of a tree.
    But I decided, decided that if I could be excellent I could absolutely be outstanding and taking a lesson from Amy Cuddy I decided to fake it until I became it.
     Since that weekend in Chicago whenever I was asked "how are you?" or the equivalent I would stand up a little straighter reaching for those two millimeters and say "Outstanding!" And it was amazing. This gets a response almost every time. Something like "Really, why?" It does make the conversation last longer than you intended sometimes but that's OK.
     So where ever you are and what ever you are doing be outstanding today and decide to make today the best day of your life.