Focus on Getting Better Faster Versus Being Better Now
The pressure to perform is always there. Only one vendor wins the contract. Only one person gets elected. In any number of day-to-day situations, you’re competing for resources, attention, or recognition.
For my son, it’s his tennis ranking. He loves tennis, and he loves to compete. The fact that the USTA publishes weekly rankings for kids his age only magnifies his obsession with competition. So here’s the question I’ve been asking him:
Is it better to focus on being better now or getting better faster?
Don’t misunderstand me. He and I both hope he wins matches now. Just like I want our company to win work now. But we have much less control over winning now than we do over winning later.
My son’s current capacity is what it is. He’s only this fast, this tall, this strong, and this good. Likewise, our team’s products, people, processes, and packaging are what they are today. I have moderate influence over our current capacity, brand, and value equation. I have limited influence over what others think of me today.
Where you and I have much greater influence is whether we win in the future.
Your future performance will depend on these things you control now:
- Your training
- How much you stretch your limits
- What resources you save
- How much you invest
- How hard you study
- Your mental health
- Relationships with others
- Strategy and planning
- Doing activities that drive outcomes
Alabama football coach Nick Saban said, “Success doesn’t come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It’s the result of doing something each day that will add to your excellence.” It’s the difference between proving and improving. From fixed to growth mindset.
Consider the competitive playing field. The reality for my son is that his ranking and the outcome of his matches are somewhat predictable…today. Could he jockey for wins and rankings with a handful of peers? Sure. Just like your company probably has one or two peers that you primarily compete with — the “one in three” commoditization of competitors that often leads to the cheapest option winning. You can enhance your pitch, perform your best, and, if all else fails, hit them with a lowball price. Any of these will have some bearing on whether you get the business today.
But where do you really have the most control? What will deliver the most value over time?
Getting better faster.
When you come up against those competitors the next time, they may have gained some experience, but you will have gained an advantage: You will be better.
It’s worth noting that experience doesn’t necessarily translate into significant improvement. I’ll bet you know plenty of people with lots of experience who aren’t much better than they were five years ago. They’ve just been repeating similar patterns and habits. And if their competitors have gotten better, then they’re likely losing more than they’re winning these days.
Of course, it’s hard to resist the pull of immediate gratification. It requires perspective. At 11 years old, my son has a lot of tennis ahead of him. Work to be the best at age 18, I plead with him. It’s easy for me at age 42 to have the perspective. It’s hard for him to see it, though. Today he’s 11 and today he wants to win.
It’s probably true for you and me too. We want to win where we are. But if we only had more perspective, we would see that the opportunity for greater performance and more wins lies ahead.
Where is your focus? Better now or better faster?
Whether you’re 15 or 75 years old, you will have plenty of chances to win or lose. And whether you’re 15 or 75, you have limited ability to control how well you’ll perform now. You have lots of influence over how you’ll do next year.
Do your best now. But always, get better faster. Be the one who learns, grows, prepares, and remains humble about opportunities to improve.
I’d be much more afraid to play tennis against the one who is obsessed with getting better faster.
Try repeating this every day:
Today I will do what others won’t so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.
What are you doing to get better faster?
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