“The only person you should try to be better than … is the person you were yesterday”
Tony Robbins
Sadly this wasn’t my quote, either today or yesterday, but instead another fine piece of advice by Tony Robbins, which perfectly illustrates the point of this post.
Whilst it is natural to want to compare yourself with others, it’s rarely a fair comparison because for the most part you are comparing their best features against your average ones. If you extrapolate and make this comparison with the general population across most of your skills, talents and expertise, then it’s not hard for this competitive analysis to quickly become self-destructive.
No matter how good you are, there will always be someone, and in reality quite a few someones, out there better than you at something, if not everything you are or do.
Unfortunately by comparing yourself to others you allow them, not you, to drive your behaviour. You have already lost control.
However you instantly regain control if you can reframe your focus onto the one thing that you’re definitely better at than everyone else which is being you.
The comparison of your skills, talents and expertise is then only with you and suddenly this comparison is much fairer all round. When life becomes about being a better version of yourself and all your effort and energy go towards achieving this, it also becomes a much more fulfilling place to be.
Warren Buffet calls this the inner scorecard and observes that “the big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an inner scorecard or an outer scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an inner scorecard.”
This drive to be the best you can be, this inner scorecard, is an important part of the mental toughness framework within the ‘Challenge’ component and it helps develop your positive framing about yourself as well as your desire to improve your capability. This is why you are your best competition.