Ever since you were little, teachers, coaches and parents have been instilling this unhealthy idea in your still-growing mind. Whether you were consciously aware of it or not, up until this point in your life, you were taught that you have to be the best. While perfection is idealistically something to strive for, in theory, the reality is that it just is not attainable. By maintaining the mind-frame that you need to be number one, you are inevitably setting yourself up for failure. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Though this may not be what you want to hear, it has to be said.
You will never be the best. There will always be someone who is smarter, thinner, prettier or stronger than you are. As unfortunate as it is, that’s just the way the world works. If you spend your entire life comparing yourself to others in an attempt to be the best, you will miss out on the opportunity to appreciate yourself as the masterpiece that you are. You will indisputably be guaranteed to live a life full of emptiness, dissatisfaction and overall unhappiness.
My intention isn’t to make you feel inadequate or to make you feel like you aren’t good enough. In fact, my sole purpose of writing this is to let you in on a little secret. When people tell you you have to be the best, they are actually forgetting the most important part of the saying. You don’t need to be the best; you need to be the best you that you can be.
It’s impossible to gauge an accurate sense of self-worth if you’re holding yourself to unrealistic standards. Life can be looked at as a competition, but with only one participant: you. Now, I’m not saying to abandon any aspirations you have and settle for whatever place you are at right now. On the contrary, you need to constantly push yourself in order to become a better version of yourself. The only true way to assess your progress is by comparing yourself to the person you were yesterday. That’s it.
You may not be able to run as long or fast as your friends, but if you can run better than you did last week, that’s amazing. If you usually get Ds on your papers, but then you work hard and finally get the C that you put in so much effort to receive, that’s absolutely something to be proud of. As long as you are striving to be the best you, that is something that is always worth celebrating.
Because your thought process is accustomed to wanting to be number one for so long, rewiring your brain will take a lot of work. However, the most important things in life are usually worth every ounce of effort required to achieve it. You do not need to be the best; you just need to be the best you that you can be. And please, don’t ever forget you appreciate yourself along the way.
