Striving for a Personal Best

How do we succeed in life?

That is a bit of a loaded question - I know. There is a lot that we can dive into where life success is concerned, so many avenues of how to achieve it…

What if I told you, all it took was the ability to be just a little better than yesterday, consistently, day in and day out?

Back in college, I was a competitive swimmer. I spent the vast majority of my 4 years walking down to the athletic center to put in the work - both in the pool and in the weight room. I was so consistent and diligent in my practice of putting in the work, that my team actually named me the Hardest Worker for 3 seasons in a row.

In the moment, of putting in the work, all I felt was frustration and pain - putting in the effort, but not achieving the results I knew I truly desired. I wasn’t the fastest or most talented guy on the team. In fact, just 4 years before joining the college team - the summer before entering High School - my parents thought I was going to drown. I had just taken up the sport, loving the water, but having little knowledge and ability to swim competitively. That summer, the coach actually took me (and one fellow swimmer) out of normal practice into what we jokingly called “polliwog” lessons. It was here that my drive for daily success took root.

When you start at such a novice level, daily progress comes easy. It is not difficult to double your successes each day when success the previous day is defined as making it 10 meters without stopping. Making progress like this is addictive! This excitement and drive pushed me through High School swimming - hitting personal bests every month, every year, every season.

Once in college, the exponential growth seemed to slow down. I was still getting better - still hitting a personal best each year, but the margin of improvement was getting smaller and smaller. In these moments, it is easy to let frustration set in. Working hard day in and day out, for little to no improvement. To make matters worse, swimming is all about hitting the best times at the end of the year - which naturally tends to lead to slower than desired times throughout the year…talk about demotivating!?

What set me apart from some of my peers was my ability to continue to put in the work. To remember that my only real job was to show up and put forth better effort and be better than I was yesterday. Some days this was about swimming faster than the day before, or completing more yards. Other days it was about slightly better technique or mental preparation. Just show up and be better today than I was yesterday.

The end result - continued improvement on my times EVERY...SINGLE...YEAR.?

I am proud of what I accomplished as a collegiate swimmer. Never having won a major race, or even being the top seed at a meet. Never setting records, or doing anything that would, by athletic standards, be considered spectacular. But I got better. I accomplished MY goals, I became a better athlete - and more importantly, a better teammate. I learned a lesson that has stuck with me in everything that I have done in the decade that followed.

Today, I use the process of Personal Bests as my measuring stick in business. We set goals, we have KPIs to achieve, but most importantly, we look to what we have done that makes us better than we were yesterday, better than last week, better than last month, better than last quarter. With this mindset, we fondly look back on our year and see that we have had record setting quarters, and have now set a record for the year…incredible.?

The success feels incredible, almost unfathomable, because in the moment, it sure didn’t feel like it. It felt we were missing the mark. This feeling is compounded when we allow ourselves to compare to others in our market, who - in the moment, are surpassing what we are accomplishing on any given day. But by staying the course, working on how we can be better today than we were yesterday, we have success that will last a lifetime. An ability to be successful, in business, and in life.

It is all about personal bests.

How will you be better today than you were yesterday?