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Let me add two more areas where a little extra will help you make the leap to the next level.

1. A little extra attitude.

You see, motivation determines what you do, ability determines what you're capable of doing, and attitude determines how well you do it. When I see a person operating with excellence, I know it's because he or she has a good attitude. In writing about the Olympics, the late sports columnist Jim Murray commented that, in the history of the Games, the difference between gold medalists and silver medalists in all the timed events was less than one-tenth of a second. "That's not ability," he said. "That's attitude."

2. A little extra planning.

Robert Eliot, a cardiology professor at the University of Nebraska, has some great advice about this:

"It's important to run not on the fast track, but on your track."

"Pretend you have only six months to live, and make three lists: the things you have to do, want to do, and neither have to do nor want to do. Then, for the rest of your life, forget everything on the third list." What does it take to come up with such lists? A little extra planning.

You might think of yourself as pretty ordinary right now, but what would happen if you moved your life up just one notch? What would happen if you added a little extra in any of these areas? Remember — the distance between ordinary and extraordinary is not that great, but the resulting difference in your life when you make that leap could be far greater than you could even imagine.