I have not learnt a new language. I have not read the complete works of Shakespeare either. Nor have I taken the Lockdown opportunity to master baking sourdough bread.* However, as The BF proclaimed, according to social media: “you will come out of Lockdown either as a chunk, hunk or drunk” I have enjoyed keeping up with my exercise – and my other goals that were originally planned for 2020.
Comparing your activity and achievements to others during the current pandemic (or at any time) is a futile exercise, guaranteed to lead you to not feeling great about yourself. There will be always be somebody who is doing more, better, and faster. Just as there will always be another person who is doing less, worse and is slower.
In the race of life, what matters is that you know which lane you want to be in and what your own personal hurdles are that you want to leap and overcome. They are yours and yours alone. We can be inspired by others in other fields and recognise that the thinking and success behaviours that they deploy can be applied to help reach our goals too. However, we cannot necessarily do it their way or copy them. They have developed what works for their brain – and they are still learning too!
You are unique. You can find a way that works for you.
What would it be like if instead of berating yourself for “not doing enough today”, you celebrated what you have accomplished?
Instead of comparing yourself to anyone, you focused on how great you are?
Rather than beat yourself up for your supposed failings and lack (or taking your frustration out on loved ones) you become your own cheerleader?
To be an inspirational leader, you must back yourself 100%.
You know if you are engaging in distraction techniques or suppressing emotions that hide how amazing you are. You’re also aware if you are wasting your precious time on things that do not energise you and make you feel negative.
If you are going to compare, measure your success against your own specific criteria, which are designed to encourage progress, stretch without damaging action and move at the pace which feels right to you – and your starting point. This reflects how I support (and challenge!) my executive coaching and life coaching clients to go from stuck to massive momentum.
Yes, we can usually make the boat go faster, however knowing whether it is the right time to do that will be the difference between an exhilarating adventure which exceeds expectations, or crashing and upending the vessel, wrecked on the beach.
*I have attempted this one though with breadmaking a new challenge for 2020… ahem, for it to be edible, more practice is required.