You Are Your Biggest Competition

chess 2951256 1280

chess 2951256 1280

You are your biggest competition

If you want to succeed in life you need to stop worrying about what other people, think or do. Competition is great but you should not be focusing your attention on the performance of other’s.

This is your game and you can either choose to write your own rules or follow someone else’s. The choice is yours but in my opinion the answer is clear: the moment you stop worrying is the moment you start achieving.

Fear and doubt will never serve you the way hard work and dedication will. It’s time to get out of your own way and start supporting your dreams.

Target Engaged

Engagement is one of the most important factors in the success of any endeavor. If you are fully engaged and motivated to make something happen, you are far more likely to achieve that result.

A professional basketball player driving to the hoop doesn’t worry about what his opponent will do next. He or she enters an instinctive flow state where time slows and focus narrows firmly on the task at hand: scoring.

This is the mentality you need to adopt if you want to be a champion in multiple areas of the arena known as life. Like a professional athlete, you need to learn how to cut out the trash talk, how to rise above doubt wherever it may arise in your normal day to day experience.

Another way to look at this is to consider the difference between modifying an existing product and being a truly innovative inventor. The inventor has his head down and while he is using market insights to inform his decision making, he is not trying to simply take a great idea further, he is looking to create something entirely new him or herself.

When you get too concerned about your competitor’s products, market segmentation, or value proposition, you miss out on the opportunity to offer a your own truly original idea.

Boom Headshot

Apple Computers did not become a household name because of a track record for simply modifying what was in the consumer products space. Steve Jobs is seen as a prophet for his ability to completely disregard his competitors while always demanding the absolute best from himself and the team of people around him.

Apple would not be as well known or successful a brand if it had simply sought to react to the world around it. Reaction will never be as valuable as strategic action. There is no greater act of free will than to demand your own excellence.

Stop worrying about what your friends, relatives or other people are doing or achieving. Stop making excuses for yourself. Stop reacting to the world like a passive little flower dangling in the wild winds of life. Instead transform into the ninja, moving in the shadows, eyes forever fixed on your mark, constantly making the right choices and moving with the swiftness you need to see your chosen result through.

Focus, Engage, Analyze

Instead of reacting to market, go beyond it.

Spend your time and energy defining who you are and the way you or your company want to act in the world.

As you look closer at your processes and improve your own operations, you will gain the ability to better analyze the insights you gain from both internal and external sources.

First, you focus on the things you need to do to succeed, then you engage with the processes necessary to make it happen, finally you analyze your results so you are prepared to focus all over again on a new set of challenges and mission requirements.

This is the game of life and whether you win or lose is entirely up to the way you think about yourself and where you focus your attentions and efforts.

Stop wasting valuable time and energy.

The only thing that matters is following through on the things you want.

Everything else is background noise and the better your ability to tune it, the more in the game you will be.

Touchdown

Do you think an NFL Fullback is thinking about his opponent as he receives a handoff and drives through the line of scrimmage?

Of course not!

He’s already done the work of studying game film, he’s already practiced with his team and he fully knows his role.

When it’s game time and the whistle blows his mind is calm and serene. No fear in that wheelhouse: just the determination to win.

His biggest competition isn’t the All-Pro Linebacker squaring up against him, it’s himself and his ability to push beyond where he was yesterday.

Don’t be a passive little flower blowing in the wind and reacting to the world around you; be a Full Back, be Steve Jobs, heck be a Ninja, just stop making excuses and start acting.

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