The beginning is mostly luck. The end is mostly choices. - James Clear

Greatness takes guts. And often, it's the courage to eliminate the things you can do fairly well so you have the capacity to do one thing exceptionally well. Have the courage to take more off your plate.

This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent. The MTA subway system in New York City adopted a modified version that is “point-only,” and “within two years of implementation, incidents of incorrectly berthed subways fell 57 percent.

Whether you are an adult or child, your first attempts will often seem unimportant or foolish.

• The open mic night at a nearly empty bar.
• The early blog posts that get ignored.
• The dance recital on a little stage.

Early attempts are easy to dismiss because they don't seem to amount to much. But you have to do the low stakes stuff to prepare for the high stakes stuff. They are the building blocks of confidence, and that's an enormous thing.