If you do your best, you probably will be the best and will become a success. You will stand out from the crowd since so few people actually get around to doing their best.

Do your best then and become a success because the average person seldom does their best and your efforts will stand out like a skyscraper amongst mud huts.

Many people spend about 80% of their free time watching TV instead of working on their skills or goals or the overwhelming chores that tend to pile up on us all.

I was at a seminar last weekend. There were 2,600 people in the audience. The organizer had given up doing workshops for smaller groups.

The reason he gave up was that out of the 30 people who attended the workshop only two would go on and put what they had learned into practice.

28 out of 30 don't usually do their best. This gives a huge opportunity to the remaining two who take action.

Any one can make promises about what they will do. But few people actually put in the effort necessary to execute their promises to themselves or others.

Many have no idea what real effort is about. Occasionally some exceptional people show us all what humans are capable of doing if they do their best.

Paddy Doyle recently won the world's fittest man competition. He has run, cycled and swum huge distances and has completed 3250 sit ups as well!

Very few people do any sit ups and, of those who do, few will go beyond 20.

Geoffrey Boycott, the great batsman, praised the New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum for not smiling when he had scored 50 runs. Boycott commented:

Don't smile till you've got a hundred runs; then you can smile. That's what it's about. Get big scores. All batsmen should keep that in mind.

When they get to 50, they should say: 'that's only half the job'. Get your head down and get another 50. You don't smile until you get back in the pavilion and have got some runs.

In other words don't be easily satisfied. Don't praise yourself too soon. Do more!

Tiger Woods, after the third round at the St Andrews Open in July 2000, was practising until 8.45 p.m. Even the man considered to be the best golfer in the world was not content to sit back after another successful day. He did more.

Tiger Woods has controlled his thinking from an early age and has programmed his thoughts to make him expect more and do far more than the recognized high standards of most golf professionals.

Some times it is enough to do just a little more than the average.

A few extra hours of work could make you stand out from the rest.

A writer who does a little more research or a bit more thinking about the best words to use in his or her book can transform the book.

A little more attention to detail could make a failing business successful. A good copy writer can transform an ad with just one word and even just one letter.

The person who refuses to live an ordinary life often realizes how little is the extra effort it takes and yet the rewards for this small extra effort are out of all proportion to what it costs.

The mediocre person thinks that he's taking the easy way but in the long haul he's taking the hardest way of all because he must spend his entire life existing on the poor financial results that his average work produces.

A retired business executive was once asked the secret of his success. He replied that it could be summed up in three words. These three words were: and then some.

He discovered early in his life that the difference between the ordinary people and the higher echelons could be explained by the fact that the top people did what was expected of them and they then did more.

They were sensitive to the needs of others and then gave even more help. They dealt with their responsibilities fully and then worked some more.

They were the same at home as at work. They were reliable friends and considerate neighbours and then exceeded expectations.

A hotel employee went out of his way to put up two elderly people in his own room when the hotel was overcrowded.

A while later the elderly couple turned out to be the owners of the Waldorf Astoria. Guess who they put in charge? The man who had looked after them and then some.

A little bit extra every day becomes a huge amount over a lifetime. If you want to experience something extraordinary, then you must do that bit extra every day. There is, of course, no law which says that you can't do a lot extra!

John Watson

John Watson was born in Shanghai at the start of World War II on Dec 31st 1939

His father, a British civil engineer, was given the choice of working in the mines of Northern China for the occupying forces or going to a concentration camp. He refused to work for the invading forces.

As a result the whole family were imprisoned in a concentration camp in the middle of China in 1942. Eric Liddell (featured in the Chariots of Fire) the Scottish runner and missionary was imprisoned in the same camp.

In 1945 the family was rescued by American troops who were parachuted in. John's most treasured possession from this time is a plane made of bullets given him by one of the US soldiers. The tail parts have been lost but most of it remains. He also remembers being given a bottle of coca cola by one of the US troops and has been an addict ever since!

They moved to England and then, when John's father died, to the Isle of Man.

John went to school in the Isle of Man and then taught Physical Education at a prep school in Hertfordshire. Around this time he had three mystical experiences of contact with God.

He then studied English Literature at Cambridge University and later became an English teacher in South East London but, after 5 years, he did a diploma in Religious Studies and began teaching about religion full time.

After 33 years teaching in three London Comprehensive schools, John retired from teaching. He received several awards and commendations for teaching both religious studies and the martial arts. He still teaches martial arts after beginning training in karate at the age of 37. The style he now teaches is Choikwangdo, a brilliant self-defence and health oriented style founded by Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi in 1987.

In his retirement he began studying internet marketing and continued his study of the psychology of achievement and self development. This has always been a key interest.

John plans on writing reports and books on both teaching and on achievement in general. He feels that many schools let their students down by not teaching enough about how to study (by using mind maps for example) and about how to set goals and how to start saving money for their early retirement!

John's main aim is to make the most of his own potential and to help others make the most of their's. He also wishes to pass on whatever he knows of the meaning of life and to discover more and share more about the truths behind the universe.