Sports scorekeeping is great. Business scorekeeping is great. Both are designed and intended to deliver results, Winners & Losers. But for you and I this cannot be how we measure results and progress. Comparison is the thief of joy. We are now more than ever surrounded by opportunity via comparison. Ads are just comparisons and are very effective in sales. You are not a product to be sold. Why do you sell yourself the result that someone else has gotten without also putting in the exact work to go toward it? Do you even know how much work they put in? Do you realize that it will never be the same for them as it is for you. You might actually stand a better chance than they did. But you sit and keep score and make no progress. Let’s go somewhere a little more hidden and not so obvious. You can write down in the comments whichever less obvious thing that you hide or used to hide. The thing you minimize because it sucks. The thing you do in private because it contradicts all your public goals. We’ve all seen the diet ad where the husband and wife sneak off to a closet to hid and eat a snack and then find out that they went to the same closet. Then we feel the ad reminding us its ok - and we laugh about it because they designed the ad for entertainment. Some of that is real and yet the world of business uses it so lightly. - The fear you have of not measuring up in one of a thousand possible examples - so you hide it. - Fear of abandonment and watching others be loved. - Fear of failure - The action in trying just feels like failure so you don’t act. - Rejection - being told no and taking it personally. - Criticism and coaching intended to be helpful causes more shutting down and seclusion. - Showing up where people are gathered makes you nervous because on the inside you’re a mess so you stop showing up. - After a long time of wanting to be invited and then telling yourself a lie repeatedly - you do get the invite and you say you can’t go because it wouldn’t be right for you with your issues to show up with everyone else enjoying themselves… that you’d just be a burden.

Is there someone you’ve been meaning to talk to? Take 1 minute out of your day to shoot them a text or video message. If you’ve got more time call them and have a conversation. Sometimes a simple hello can make someone’s day, including yours.

Excuses don’t get you to the top action does…. -Nims Dai

Are you waiting for the ‘right’ time to start? For the stars to align, or that ‘perfect’ moment you have told yourself will come? We build stories in our minds about how our lives will go and that we’ll be ready for change when x, y, or z happens. Without intention, consistency, and awareness change will never come because those moments are figments of our imagination. The work we put in manifests our future, and the change happens without that singular ‘perfect’ occurrence that we have waited for. What is holding you back from starting, and is it serving you now or your future?

Performance: Better to be consistently good over occasionally great