“Are you a cow or are you a Rhino?” fellow speaker and massive goals expert David Hyner asked.

He was talking about the comparison that Scott Alexander makes in his book titled Rhinoceros Success.

I’ll be honest I’ve never read it and I was surprised to learn that David’s research of top achievers revealed that this was the book that most appeared on their ‘influential’ books list.

The author of  Rhinoceros Success, Scott Alexander, declares that there are two kinds of people in the world – those who are like ‘Rhinos’ and those who are ‘Cows’

What’s the difference you ask?

Cows go with the herd and surround themselves with others just like them so that they can blend in.

Cows fulfil their basic tasks by eating, sleeping and producing milk as life passes them by.

For a cow everyday is like groundhog day, it’s the same monotonous routine day in and day out.

Cows do have dreams and wishes but the fear of breaking away from the safety of the heard and possible failure keeps them rooted to the spot.

Rhinos on the other hand are strong animals who are thick skinned and not worried by what others think or say.

Rhinos don’t have dreams or wishes, they simply decide what they wants and then charge toward it, not stopping until they get it.

A Rhino forges its own path and never follows “the herd.”

So what does all this have to do you with?
I’m not saying that everyone should be a Rhino nor am I saying that you shouldn’t be a cow.
What I am saying is if you want to really achieve significant meaningful goals in your life, then you have to be more like a Rhino.

Here are 5 simple principles for living more like a Rhino.

Stop Wishing On A Star.

Instead of wishing things were different make a decision to do something about it. Turn that wish into a goal by moving from a thought in your mind to a goal committed to paper.

Boom Shake The Room

Take that goal and turn it into a compelling vision statement that makes you feel so excited and pumped that you cannot wait to get up every morning inspired to take action.

Likes Are For Facebook.

Forget having everyone love you. When you choose to take on a different path from the heard, some won’t like it, some will love it and some may even join you in a Jerry McGuire sty-lee.

Drop The Assumptive Close.

When you say to yourself something like “I’m not good enough”, how do you know?

Too many people quit before they’ve even started because they’ve made assumptions about themselves and end up closing off any progress.

Stop it! Give it a try first. You will be amazed at what you are actually capable of doing.

The Elephant In The Room.

To get to where they want Elephants will trample over what is in their path whereas Rhinos charge towards it warning whatever is in the way that it is coming.

Yes, be committed to the charge and take action but at the sometime you must be careful not to trample on others to get what you want.

So it’s over to you. Are you a cow or a rhino?

This post was inspired by the work of David Hyner FPSA and Director of Stretch Development.