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How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably

Steph Smith on June 13, 2019

This article was originally published on my blog, where I often write about personal growth, remote work, learning to code, and women in tech. ...

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Ben Halpern • Jun 13 '19

Super fabulously articulated Steph. This is a really motivating one!

Steph Smith • Jun 13 '19

Thank you, Ben! Really appreciate hearing that.

Mauri • Jun 15 '19

I really appreciate this article, it's specially useful for me on a process I'm going through right now, excellent work!

Ben Halpern • Jun 15 '19

Agreed

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

Thank you, Mauri! Wishing you the best.

Varun • Jun 17 '19

Inspiring, Motivating and beautifully crafted.

To put it simply in code - :-P

let good=[];
let great=Array(100);

while (good.length !== great.length ){

good.push('something');

}

console.log("Something Great Done!")

Steph Smith • Jun 17 '19

Thank you, Varun! I love the translation into code. 😍

Lee-Lilly-FIR • Jun 14 '19 • Edited

Searching for instantaneous greatness is same as watching hurricane on TV. The momentum catches people, not before, not after.
Too bad, our life goes slowly and full of tedious choose that don't always make show.

As hurricane kills few, the instantaneous success or luck hits only a handful people.

For most of us, habit counts. It forms a pattern, which shapes how we feel, how we think and talk, and eventually sees what we do and what we become.

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Completely! The thing is, most of the stories we hear are formed by the media and are romanticized and not an accurate depiction of reality.

That's why most people think success happens in certain ways, when realistically, most success is not that flashy.

Marek Zaluski • Jun 20 '19

Hey Steph, I loved your article.

I picked it as one of the highlights of my latest video.

I discuss your article and I add some of my own thoughts.

Check it out here:

32:23

How Important Are Habits for Your Career Success? (And More of the Best Career Insights of the Week)

Marek Zaluski ・ Jun 20 ・ 1 min read

Steph Smith • Jun 22 '19

Thanks so much, Marek! Enjoyed watching your video.

Comment deleted

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

Thanks so much, Marcos! Really hope it helps you moving forward.

Roman Batsenko • Jun 15 '19

Thank You very much for writing such an amazing and motivational article!

I just wanted to point out that phrases like "Be Good, Be Great, Become Great" etc probably can hurt someone who is currently on the stage of identifying him/herself with his/her actions.
I had such a problem and I'm in continuous progression to stop doing this ("I am enough" by Marisa Peer is really helpful :)), but I've noticed a lot of people are feeling bad about themselves because of what they do.

So maybe You could somehow make it a bit more clear that "Be Great" or "Be Good" doesn't mean that we are currently bad and that it's more accurate to say "Be Great at something/Be Good at something" and that we're great "by default" :)

Kind regards!

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

Thank you, Roman!

I hear you. I think sometimes those phrases can be detrimental, but part of the reason I wrote this post is to encourage people not to compare themselves to others and instead to focus on progressing themselves. You yesterday should be your baseline for tomorrow.

I also think it's good to stay encouraging, but not give people a false sense of accomplishment. If we use our "yesterday selves" as the point of comparison, we all have room to grow!

Jaco van Zyl • Jun 19 '19

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this article Steph. It really helped me re-evaluate what I see as success, as well as how to get there. You also gave me a few great books that I added to my reading list that I have not read before. Thank you for this, truly.

Steph Smith • Jun 19 '19

Thanks so much, Jaco! It’s so rewarding to get comments like this which indicate the post had a legitimate impact. All the best! 💫

Stephen Charles Weiss • Jun 17 '19

Steph - really loved the article! I also dug into your website and got very inspired, so you have at least one new subscriber to your newsletter!

I was going back over the article and thinking about it and I'm curious - do you mean repeatably good or repeatedly? I can make the argument for both, but I will admit, I first interpreted it as repeatedly only to realize later you wrote repeatably.

Cheers!

Steph Smith • Jun 18 '19

Thank you, Stephen! It's so nice to hear that you found my other articles helpful too.

I've had this question asked a few times now and is something I'm not even 100% sure about (both pre- and post- publishing). I think it could be either, but I went with repeatably instead of repeatedly because repeatedly speaks more to something having been done, while I think repeatably refers more to the concept of doing things that can be repeated in the future. It's not only the act of doing something over and over, but developing the right processes which can be repeated (ie: focusing on things that are repeatable).

Yehanny Olivares • Jun 17 '19

It was a really good article to read and to take seriously in life, so I'm gonna read it over and over again to be as GREAT as you are, nice post it really inspired me, thanks!

Steph Smith • Jun 18 '19

Thanks so much Yehanny! Really happy to hear that you'll be reading it moving forward.

SyntaxSeed (Sherri W) • Jun 14 '19

This might be one of the best & most practical articles I've ever read about self improvement.

I am sharing this ALL over the place.

Thank you.

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

Wow, thank you Sherri! Really appreciate the support.

Nemantro • Jun 18 '19

I already read "Power of Habit" and "Algorithms to live by", two extraordinary books!

I liked so much your article. Many claps !

I suggest this book to your list: "Thinking Fast and Slow" , You can't change your habits without understanding your brain and the decision making process it generates.

And this quote :
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” Aristotle

Steph Smith • Jun 19 '19

Thank you for the suggestions!!

I've read half of "Thinking Fast and Slow", but I really should finish it.

The Aristotle quote is really great too.

Raja • Jun 16 '19

This is very impressive. I think I and many others will get a lot of use out of it for years to come.

Steph Smith • Jun 17 '19

Wow, thank you! I really hope it is useful moving forward 😊

sk • Jun 15 '19 • Edited

Super Like! Candidate for repeated read.
Thanks for writing and sharing such "good" articles, keep doing it "repeatedly"..... :)

Steph Smith • Jun 17 '19

Exactly! Thank you for the kind words.

Eric Davidson • Jun 13 '19

I would repeatedly say that this article is great. Wonderful job!

Steph Smith • Jun 13 '19

Thanks so much, Eric!

Anderson • Jun 20 '19

What a great article! 👏 Thanks!

Steph Smith • Jun 22 '19

Thank you, Anderson!

Chris Bertrand • Jun 13 '19

Great Article Steph, thanks for sharing.

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Thanks Chris!

Joseph Angelo Barrozo • Jun 18 '19

So many takeaways from this thank you!

Steph Smith • Jun 18 '19

Thank you, Joseph!

Adel Zaalouk • Jun 14 '19

Loved it!

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

🙏

morningGlory • Jun 13 '19

Great post!

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Thanks Belen!

Nero Adaware • Jun 13 '19

I really needed this.
Thanks for this lovely article.

Steph Smith • Jun 13 '19

Glad it found you at the right time!

Gabriel Laroche • Jun 13 '19

Wow! Great article and really motivating! I never thought of greatness/success like that.

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Thank you! Glad it opened your mind to a new way of thinking. 😊

Muhammad Syuqri • Jun 14 '19

Thank you for the great article! A good dose of motivation in the morning 😊

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Thank you! Happy that you found it motivating 😊

Will G • Jun 14 '19

Steph, thank you for writing this article! I will share this with a few friends.You break down what I have been trying to explain for years so perfectly. Thanks for the hard work!

Steph Smith • Jun 14 '19

Wow, thank you!

Juned Khatri • Jun 14 '19

A must read! Thanks for sharing.

Steph Smith • Jun 15 '19

Thank you!

Andrey Sorokin • Jun 20 '19

Such an amazing article! I didn't expect to find something like that on dev.to, happy to be a part of the wide community discussing different topics :)