No, no, no…
I’m not talking about THAT.
(Get your mind out of the gutter…)
Listen:
One of the best success quotes I’ve ever heard is from pro quarterback (and NFL Hall-Of-Famer) Steve Young when he said:
“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self improvement, about being better than you were the day before.”
Oh yeah, baby!
That quote is solid gold.
When you compete against yourself… ignore what everyone else is doing… and instead keep trying to only beat your own “records”… how can you possibly lose?
You can’t.
It’s impossible.
You can ONLY get better and more successful.
I’ve been applying this daily for 10 years and I can tell you, there is NO better way to master and excel at what you do than by striving to always do better than your last best accomplishment.
To play the game better than you did before.
And to strive to do even BETTER the next time.
The philosophy works, mi amigo.
But, you know what?
As good as this works…
There’s also a time to do the exact polar OPPOSITE — and play the game against others.
Look, none of my colleagues knows this.
(Guess they will now…)
But I’ve spent the past few years “competing” (silently, in my mind) with many of them.
Not in a “I hope they lose!” kinda way.
But in a “how can I outdo what they just did?” way.
For example:
I’d see a sales letter someone in one of my mastermind groups wrote, and think, “that’s fraggin’ brilliant — I gotta step up my game!”
And it’d motivate me.
Push me to work harder.
Dig deeper into my market and product.
And result in nothing by my BEST effort.
(Even if I could “get away” with dogging it…)
It doesn’t take long of doing that to get good (really good!) at what you do and start sticking out from the bleating herd of wannabes.
Anyway, something to think about.
Have yourself a great weekend.
And don’t forget to check out:
Ben Settle
