Compete against yourself.
February 17, 2010, Shaun White is standing at the top of the halfpipe in Cypress Mountain, BC. He has already won.
What will you do when you meet with success?
On his first run in the finals, White scored a 46.8/50. Through both rounds, no rider bested that score, leaving White the victor before taking his second run.
He could have coasted down the center of the pipe, cheered by onlookers, in classic “victory lap” fashion.
Instead, he delivered one of the most iconic runs in the history of the sport. He scored a 48.4 and landed the first ever double McTwist 1260 (in competition). If you could win two medals in one event, Shaun White would have won gold and silver.
Video: https://youtu.be/ak_29sPEMc0
What would you do?
There would have been no shame in basking in that victory — most of us would have. In fact, Shaun White had already cemented himself as a household name as the most iconic snowboarder in the world. No one would have looked the other way if he chose to celebrate his victory thirty seconds early.
That is what separates the true greatness from “above average.” Winning is hard. Repeating is harder. Repeating when you can’t possibly lose is hardest.
This doesn’t just apply when you are in competition, or completing a specific task. If you want to meet with real success, then you should be in competition with yourself whenever you approach anything.
How can I be better?
This isn’t a lesson that can be learned — it is a process. Competing with yourself is a process. How can I be better today than I was yesterday?
This is a broad statement, so break it down. Too often we get caught up in things outside our control, and we let those things become our focus.
Today I am going to run a little farther. I’m going to do five more crunches. I’m going to prepare better for my workday. I’m going to make the people around me want to be better because I am better.
How can we apply this?
I watched the event described live because I love snowboarding, but I first heard it framed like this as a member of the Ice Hockey team at Rensselaer — our coach showed a clip of that run as part of a pre-game speech for one of the biggest games of the season. We lost 7–0. I consider that speech to be the best speech he ever gave. It was the right message at the wrong time. You can’t just decide to “improve” right before an important event, it is about developing the process.
As a professional managing software developers, I want my team to learn this lesson. To the outside world, all that matters is the finished product. If we push out an application that looks and works like it is supposed to, then we have done our job. We’ve won, but are we improving? To survive in the fast-paced tech world, we have to be.
Competing against yourself is about the process, not about the event. It takes discipline. It’s about doing little things better, so that when you find yourself at the top of the halfpipe with the whole world watching, you can win again and again.
Be better today than yesterday.
