Have you ever been watching your favorite athlete and thought to yourself that they appear to be on an utterly different level than the competition?

Why is that? Why do we classify our abilities in individual and separate classes? For example, collegiate athletics are indexed by division-- Division 1, Division 2, etc. Similarly, we practice this same habit of classification for academic performance. An "A" denotes excellence, a "B" for good, and so forth.

The truth, though we might not like to admit to it, is that humans are economical by nature. We like to make things appear more simple than they may actually be. In classifying performance we enable ourselves to make the assumption that a Division 1 player is indeed a superior athlete to that of a player coming from a Division 3 university, and that an "A" student may be more intelligent than say, a "C" student (even though we know this isn't a perfect system). 

That said, what effort will you need to provide to advance yourself to "the next level"? Will it take practice, time, patience, experience; perhaps even all of the above? Understanding the requirements to arrive at this next mile-marker will put you one step closer to actually achieving your goal. Finally, ask yourself, "who's at the top?" and "what will it take to surpass them?" Ask of yourself these questions, and someday you might find yourself alone in a class of your own.