Success Principle #13 – Run Your Own Race
June 12, 2007
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or by Email.
Thanks for visiting!
“Two men were walking in a forest, when they suddenly saw a savage, hungry-looking bear. One of the men quickly put on a pair of running shoes. The other guy exclaimed, “You idiot! You can’t run faster than a bear …”
To which the first guy replied, “But I don’t have to run faster than the bear, I only have to run faster than you!”
The Wrong Take Away
In the business world I’ve most often heard that little story told to get the wrong point across. Usually the person relating the story uses it as a spring board to convey some point along these lines.
If you want to be successful you must outrun your competition.
Nope. Wrong. Dumb. Misses the greater truth.
I caught myself falling into that line of thinking at work yesterday.
Things have been nuts. We’ve all been scrambling just to keep our heads above water. We’re all a little behind.
As I was assessing the situation and where I was at I thought, “Well at least I’m not as far behind as my boss.”
Nope. Wrong. Dumb.
The Wrong Measure
Truly successful people don’t keep their eyes on everyone else’s progress. They keep their eyes on their own lane.
If you measure your success relative to how everyone else is doing you’ll probably end up far below your potential.
One of my good friends in the Navy washed out of pilot training later than anyone else I ever saw, after he got his wings. He used to joke that he was the Worst of the Best.
I would usually “correct” him jokingly and say he was the Best of the Rest.
Getting it Right For Success
We all have seeds of greatness planted within us. Those precious seeds will ultimately come to fruition when we maximize our potential.
And we can’t maximize our potential when we are focused on how poorly people around us are doing.
Rather than simply trying to outrun the next guy, take a close look at which track you are on. Too many people have spent their entire lives climbing the ladder of success only to find they had it leaning against the wrong wall.
Are you running the best race for you?
Or are you running someone else’s race better than they are?
Take the time to find the best race for you to run. Then don’t let yourself get distracted by how others are running the race you were meant to run. Run your race to the absolute best of your ability.
When we do that we will no longer settle for being the Best of the Rest. That will be the point when each of us finds ourselves truly becoming the Best of the Best.
Chris, so glad you said that about this story – it’s always bugged me. It’s OK as a joke, but when it’s held up as “model behavior”, then there’s something terribly wrong!
The apostle Paul wrote pretty clearly about how we are to keep our eyes on the prize – NOT the other competitors – and as any Olympic runner will testify, as soon as they take their focus off that, then they’ve lost!
Thanks for the reminder about the seeds of greatness, Chris – hang in there, Buddy!
Chris-
Thanks for reminding me about this important principle. It’s pretty hard to not compare yourself to others in law school because how well you depends on how well everyone else does. Law school grades on a curve. There’s only so many A’s given. You can do A work, but might not get the A because someone did it just a bit better. That part frustrates me about law school.
Robert, I think it can help reduce our own stress levels when stop worrying about what everyone else is doing as well.
Brett, ah, the old grading curve. Personally I’m not a fan of grading on a curve. To my way of thinking schools would do better to grade to standards instead. Grading on a curve is almost like admitting right up front that the teacher might not be capable of teaching.
Love the post, Chris. Falls right in line with all the stuff I am brewing over in my own head. Good stuff at the right time – at least for me anyway…
Another note. I am a huge Survivor fan. Last season, I was really pulling for Yau – but I noticed this about him – he never did well in the challenges. He was always looking over to see how far ahead/behind the others were or how they were doing the task at hand. He never seemed to be focused on what he was doing…didn’t work out well for him – until the end when it seemed like he realized what he was doing and stopped.
Until the end… His end? Or did he get it figured out and win?
sage wisdom Chris,
but any thoughts as to why we so easily want to fall back into comparing ourselves with others?
[...] Cree shares Success Principle #13 – Run Your Own Race. A great reminder of who you want to keep up with… and it’s not the Joneses. Filed [...]
Drew! I was just thinking about you guys yesterday! I need to catch you for coffee one of these days.
As to your question, I think it is simply human nature. We are hardwired to look outside ourselves for validation. Think about little kids. One of their favorite things to say is, “Look, Mommy!” or “Look, Daddy!”
After we grow up we still do that in our minds. Only instead of appealing to our parents, we do that internal comparison with whatever outside source happens to be in our lives at the moment.
I guess the trick is finding the right outside source.
Chris, so glad you said that about this story – it’s always bugged me. It’s OK as a joke, but when it’s held up as “model behavior”, then there’s something terribly wrong!
Chris-
Thanks for reminding me about this important principle. It’s pretty hard to not compare yourself to others in law school because how well you depends on how well everyone else does. Law school grades on a curve. There’s only so many A’s given. You can do A work, but might not get the A because someone did it just a bit better. That part frustrates me about law school.