Letting Go — Beginning an Excellence Mindset

This past week I took a much-needed break and took my family skiing. For our kids, it was their first time on ski’s. There were more than a couple of what I call “Parent Moments” where we had an opportunity to watch our kids overcome their fear and succeed. It was awesome watching them try something new for the first time and start by saying they can’t do it only to end with them excelling at it. Maybe the best part was seeing the pride in their eyes at the bottom of the hill.

In overcoming their fears and self-doubt they had to do a lot of different things. They had to let go. They had to trust. They had to have coaching. They had to be willing to learn. They had to be willing to fail. They had to be willing to fall and get back up, over and over. They had to be willing to ask for help. They had to be willing to accept a helping hand. They had to have strength. They had to have the right equipment. They had to have patience. They had to have fun.

Overall, they had to let go of a Perfectionist mindset and embrace a new way of thinking. Embracing an Excellence Mindset can be a total shift from the comfortable to the uncomfortable. Below are 3 mental shifts to start embracing that lead to a healthier mindset and future success.

1. Don’t compare yourself to others who are doing better than you — No matter how successful you become, there will be others “above” you. Don’t waste your time and effort focusing on this sort of thing. It creates jealousy and feelings of inadequacy within you. Focus on yourself.

Matthew McConaughey was giving a speech after accepting an award and told a story about being asked when he was younger who his hero was. He said he would need to think about it and after a few days came back with this answer, “Me, 10 years from now.” He knew he would never achieve his goal, but it was a future self that he was chasing. This is a marathon where the only competitor is you, competing with yourself to be the best YOU can be.

2. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first — It’s not practice that makes perfect — it’s imperfect practice that eventually makes perfect. Or as my friend Arnie Malham says, “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing wrong” in his new book, Worth Doing Wrong.

It’s only natural when you start something new that you do it poorly at first. You may feel inadequate and inferior. Don’t be embarrassed, though. There’s always a price to be paid for success. The trick is to stick with it until you succeed.

Remember, you’re developing a skill that gives you the ability to provide for yourself and your family, no matter what the economy is doing, how old you are, or what you’ve done in the past.

3. Accept that it will take hard work — Hard works opens the door to success, and with it comes the freedom to do what you want when you want. Kobe Bryans was on stage accepting the ‘Icon Award’ at the ESPYS when he said:

“We’re not on this stage just because of talent or ability,” Bryant said.

“We’re up here because of 4 a.m. We’re up here because of two-a-days or five-a-days.

We’re up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way.

If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make us stronger.”

An Excellence Mindset is a lifelong journey of self-reflection and growth that includes your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitude.

“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.” Leo Buscaglia

SaturdayMorning.Careers is a blog to help navigate the career journey and motivate people to become their ideal self. If you need help, visit me at www.careerdesigncoaching.com.