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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

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

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Steph Smith

Thank you, Ben! Really appreciate hearing that.

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Mauri

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

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Ben Halpern

Agreed

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Steph Smith

Thank you, Mauri! Wishing you the best.

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Varun

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!")

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Steph Smith

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

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Lee-Lilly-FIR • 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.

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Steph Smith

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.

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Marek Zaluski

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:

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Steph Smith

Thanks so much, Marek! Enjoyed watching your video.

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Steph Smith

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

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Roman Batsenko

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!

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Steph Smith

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!

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Jaco van Zyl

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.

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Steph Smith

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

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Stephen Charles Weiss

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!

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Steph Smith

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).

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Yehanny Olivares

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!

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Steph Smith

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

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SyntaxSeed (Sherri W)

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.

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Steph Smith

Wow, thank you Sherri! Really appreciate the support.

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Nemantro

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

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Steph Smith

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.

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Raja

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

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Steph Smith

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

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sk • Edited

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

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Steph Smith

Exactly! Thank you for the kind words.

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Eric Davidson

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

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Steph Smith

Thanks so much, Eric!

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Anderson

What a great article! 👏 Thanks!

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Steph Smith

Thank you, Anderson!

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Chris Bertrand

Great Article Steph, thanks for sharing.

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Steph Smith

Thanks Chris!

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Joseph Angelo Barrozo

So many takeaways from this thank you!

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Steph Smith

Thank you, Joseph!

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Adel Zaalouk

Loved it!

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Steph Smith

🙏

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morningGlory

Great post!

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Steph Smith

Thanks Belen!

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Nero Adaware

I really needed this.
Thanks for this lovely article.

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Steph Smith

Glad it found you at the right time!

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Gabriel Laroche

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

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Steph Smith

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

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Muhammad Syuqri

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

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Steph Smith

Thank you! Happy that you found it motivating 😊

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Will G

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!

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Steph Smith

Wow, thank you!

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Juned Khatri

A must read! Thanks for sharing.

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Steph Smith

Thank you!

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Andrey Sorokin

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 :)

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Steph Smith

Thank you, Andrey! Agreed - I love the diversity of topics on here. 🙌

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Luis Miguel

Got it, consistency is the key.

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Steph Smith

Thank you!! So happy you enjoyed it.

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Silvija Prozinger

This article is superb. I really needed this, thank you!

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Steph Smith

Thanks Silvija! Glad it found you when you needed it 🙌

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lurb3

Awesome, thanks a lot for the article!

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Steph Smith

Thank you!

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Yaser Al-Najjar

Why can I give this article just one Unicorn?
You really deserve zillions of 🦄

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Steph Smith

Hahah if only. Thank you, Yaser! 🦄🦄🦄

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Serhat Teker

I would also strongly recommend:So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport.

Thanks for the article.