Have you ever considered what it takes to be extraordinary rather than merely good?

I’ve been contemplating this gap between the ordinary and what’s possible and noticing where and why I stop in stretching myself. For me, it’s most noticeable in physical things. Let's take exercise, for example.

In Bill Phillips’ book, Body For Life , he has an interesting take on the most effective way to exercise aerobically: he recommends you do just 20 minutes and, as you get stronger you increase the difficulty rather than the time. Other exercise programs suggest you keep increasing the amount of exercise time, thereby taking longer and longer to get fit.

At a checkup, I complained to my doctor that the 3-4 times a week I was exercising was no longer keeping my weight where I wanted it. She said my body had been used to that frequency and so now I needed to do more. Talk about being discouraged by doing what I thought was good for me!

Phillips' formula is to increase the intensity of your workouts by using an intensity scale of 1-10 with 1 being completely at rest and 10 being the ultimate effort - pushing it to the max! I’ve tried this in the past week with my stationary bike trips. Instead of a comfortable, easy pace for 40 minutes, I warmed up and then did 1 minute intervals at a 5,6,7,8,9 level then back to 5 and repeated this four times until the last rep when I push it to 10. I could do the 5, 6 & 7 without too much strain. 8 was pushing it and at 9…. I was glad it was only for a minute.

I remembered when I have stretched myself in the past, I would tell myself I could do anything for one more minute. But the stretch from 9 to 10 was beyond what I thought I had in me. After that last minute of 9, I was not convinced I could do anything for another minute, much less, push the intensity another notch.

But, surprise, there was this well of reserve that showed up and I found that I could.

My weight training coach, Darla, always pushes me to do more repetitions than my burning muscles think they can do. Actually, why would I pay her to be my coach if she wasn’t pushing me past what I could do on my own?

In both of these examples, what I notice is that it doesn’t happen without my commitment to being a bit uncomfortable and stretching myself to reach the extraordinary. I mean, why in the world would this girl who has spent most of her life as decidedly non-athletic want to do this?

The answer is two-fold for me: First, because I do love the fun of the challenge! Secondly, because I am intrigued with finding out where those limits REALLY are and HOW to learn to bridge the gap!

However, I also know the other important element in exercise is that the rest time is just as important to the process of building strength as the workout time. So, not only is this push for the extraordinary effort important but the balance of downtime is also integral.

See how those lessons can apply to your real estate career?

Published: June 27, 2001

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Joeann Fossland ePRO, GRI, MCC, PMN, SRS is a dynamic speaker and business coach. Co-creator of THE REAL ESTATE GAME® and NoBloggerLeftBehind.com, she provides coaching solutions to enhance your effectiveness and life balance. You can subscribe to her free weekly tips, attend free monthly tele-seminars, and find out about classes delivered by email and personal coaching by visiting Joeann.com or email her at .