Mindset!
Your competition is with the YESTERDAY of You and not the TODAY of somebody else!
―Anonymous
The race was about to start.
He walked upto his dad and whispered something in his ear. His dad nodded his head in agreement and moved over to the front seat just adjacent to the track.
He had a stopwatch in his hands.
It was the “Sports day” at my daughter’s school. The last call for the 400 meter race was done.
The participants, about 7 of them were all positioned on the track.
The race was about to start.
There was nervousness and anxiety on everybody’s face.
But he was smiling.
He looked towards his dad and gave a thumbs-up. His dad returned the gesture.
The shot was fired and they all ran.
The competition was fierce and there was very little to differentiate between the top 3.
As they closed in towards the finish line, I noticed that he was placed fifth.
He was putting in a lot of effort.
But, he couldn’t better his position and ended up on the fifth position.
I felt sad for him.
But as soon as he crossed the finish line, something surprising happened.
He ran towards his dad with joy and gave him a high-five. Then they checked the timing on the stop-watch.
And suddenly he started jumping with joy and said, “I did it”.
I felt sorry for him. But he deserved an appreciation.
So I walked towards the two of them. There was disappointment on my face. After all I had to sympathize with him.
I gave a pat on his back and said, “Don’t worry. You will beat them then next time.”
He looked at me. Still smiling. And said, “But I don’t want to beat them. I want to beat myself”.
And he ran back to his friends.
I was shocked. I looked at his dad, as if struck by lightning.
His dad smiled at me and said, “He has a very unique approach. I don’t know where he learnt it from”.
“What unique approach”, I asked.
He replied, “He keeps saying that his competition is with the yesterday of his and not the today of somebody else”.
“So he keeps practicing and tracking his track time”, he continued.
“Every time he goes onto the track. his aim is to better his own time. And whenever he does, he celebrates. And today I need to buy him a Choco-bar”, he smiled once again as he finished.
As I walked back to my seat, I was struggling to understand what just hit me!
We adults can learn so much from our kids. In fact, kids have so much of positivity in them. But somewhere, we keep feeding them all of our toxicity eventually making them like us.
Anyways, that’s a discussion for another day.
But for now, the question that we need to ask ourself is, “Who are we competing against?”
We have this strange theory of comparison. We compare ourself to people, who we don’t know anything about.
- Where are they in their journey?
- What was their backstory?
- How did they reach there?
None of these things really concerns us. All that we are looking at it is their success.
And then we compare ourself to them.
If we are not able to match up to them, then it is disappointment. And that is what happens in most cases.
But only if we looked at how we were yesterday.
That comparison would have given us a lot of satisfaction and happiness.
And it would have helped us grow.
Who and what are you comparing yourself with?
I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.
So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to subscribe to it for FREE!
Found on the internet
Here’s what I found on the internet this week.
Jasmin is one of the few creators who is true to his skill. And his tips are practical and implementable, which is something I really like about him.
If you are looking to grow on LinkedIn then he the guy you need to follow. This post shows how he has grown over the last year on LinkedIn. Read it and take notes.
It works for other channels as well.
Since we spoke about comparisons and specifically self-evaluation in this edition, I felt that this tweet is a perfect one to share.
What am I reading?
Over the past couple of months, I have dropped my reading speed.
Partially because of my commitments and partially because of the advice from people like Ali Abdaal and Tiago Forte.
I don’t want to read for the sake of reading. I am not trying to capture notes and distill it so that I can go back and refer to things when I need them.
Tiago’s “Building a Second Brain” is the catalyst to all of this.
But truthfully, it has helped me organize myself. Things had gotten a little messy offlate.
Anyways, I am currently reading “Feel Good Productivity” by Ali Abdaal. I have been following him for quite some time and was really impressed with some of his productivity tips.
This book seems to be one better than all of those tips he shares on his YouTube channels.
Absolutely recommended.
From the Podcast
Over the last month or, so I released quite a few episodes on “Podcast Discovery”.
If you have been podcasting for some time or, are planning to start a show, then this could come in handy.
Here are the latest 5 episodes –
- Episode 130 – Podcast Discovery – How to Get Your Podcast Discovered!
- Episode 131 – Top 10 Best Podcast Directories to Submit Your Podcast
- Episode 132 – 10 Hard Facts about Podcasting that Nobody talks about!
- Episode 133 – Finding the Right Podcast Categories for Better Listenership!
- Episode 134 – 5 Best Ways to use AI Tools for Podcasting for the Best Results!
Do let me know your comments and feedback.
Side Note
This edition was to go out on Monday. But unfortunately there were some scheduling issues and hence am sending it out on Wednesday.
I have some other plans for this Newsletter which I will be communicating to you in due course.
If you have any feedback or, suggestions that You would like to send my way, please reply to this email and let me know.
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinions about this newsletter.
