This entire past week I have had this phrase stuck in my head:
Be better.
It sounds cocky.
It sounds douchey.
It sounds cliche.
But dang if I didn’t have one of the most productive and successful weeks in a long time.
The “Be better” approach really helps when you see something awesome that your competition is doing.
Instead of talking yourself out of being excited about your idea (trust me, we all do this), why not say to yourself the simple phrase: “Be Better”. Just be better!
I feel like I am writing a summer camp hype speech, but seriously, imagine a day where you tell yourself 20 times over the course of the day to “Be better”.
Be better than your competitor, be better than the last report you generated, be better than the last interview you conducted.
If we constantly challenge ourselves to be better, imagine what kind of world we could create.
The problem is, yes, it’s good to be better than your competition, but the most important thing is to be better than yourself.
Continue to be better than the things you have done in the past, be better than the sentence you just wrote.
Have a hunger and strive to constantly be better.
Be better than the last workout in the gym.
Be better than the last book review you did.
Be better than the last pitch you gave.
I don’t know this for a fact – it’s really just a hunch.
But I believe that our greatest leaders in history were not preoccupied with what their competitors were doing, they were preoccupied with what they themselves were doing, what their mission was, and how to constantly be better than before.
Have you ever played golf?
Okay, what about basketball?
What’s the difference between these two sports?
Well, it’s a lot harder to compete against yourself in basketball than it is in golf.
When you play golf, you usually have an established handicap (average number of strokes above par).
You have a number to compete against even if you are playing alone.
Basketball, not so much. With basketball, the goal is always to beat the other team.
With golf, you can and maybe should completely forget about the other players in your flight and focus on beating yourself.
Bringing it full circle (Thanks for bearing with me through that mind-numbing example)
Treat your life like a game of golf where you compete against yourself and less like a game of basketball where success is measured by being better than the other team.
If you are really getting out there in the murky seas of creativity, chances are you aren’t gonna have anyone to measure yourself against anyway.
Start today by being better.
But not better than the kid next to you.
Better than yourself.
Be better than you.
My challenge to you is to just give it a try.
This isn’t my brainchild. It’s not invented by me.
It’s just something I’ve used, liked, and wanted to pass along.
Challenge your friends to be better.
Challenge your co-workers to be better.
But most importantly, challenge yourself to be better.
Our world needs it.