You aren’t your best because your competition sucks!
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I walked back to my car from my workout with an odd sense of uneasiness. My workout was one of the best I had had in months, the weights I lifted were respectable and the pump was extraordinary! But my mind felt… well, ordinary! I had successfully moved away from being fat, but there was no sense of accomplishment.
Why?
Have you ever experienced a similar sense of dissatisfaction? An odd sense where the progress you have made seems insufficient.
If you have, then its good news! You know that there is a potential to improve. But the bad news is that you are stagnating because of your competition.
Let me explain
I had started working out just to prevent myself from staying fat. Subconsciously my competition was the Fat version of me. No wonder I was taking just enough action to keep myself above the Fat version me. While this mentality got me out of being a fat couch potato, it won’t help me reach the next level of my fitness. To break through the ‘fitness barrier’, I need a worthy competitor. Thus, my competitor is the Fittest version of me. (The Fittest version of me has 7% body fat, benches 300 pounds and has the strength of a Greek God.)
As my competitor is so much better off than me, I need to work at least 10x as hard as I’m currently working.
Because of working 10x as hard, I will see better results.
Because I will see better results, I will chase my imaginary competitor more viciously.
Thus an infinite pursuit of self-improvement is created; which is the whole purpose of life. Isn’t it?
In Summary
Most of us reach a certain point in our pursuit where we feel dissatisfied despite our achievements. The problem isn’t your greed, ungratefulness or fate. The problem is your competition!
Ask yourself who you are competing with.
If you are competing with a past version of yourself who hasn’t started the journey to your goal, understand that your actions have gotten you this far. But if you continue competing with a past version of yourself, you will stagnate!
The only way ahead is to compete with the absolute pinnacle of your pursuit.
