Don’t Forget to Look Down
I was recently working on a project for a client when one of the senior executives blurted out, "I can't believe you know how to do that. That's insane!"
"Well, I didn't know how to do this a year ago."
He laughed. I wasn't kidding. The truth is, some of the things I'm working on today are miles above what I could accomplish just one year ago. Think about that! At 44, much of my work involves skills that 43-year-old me had zero chance of executing......never mind 33-year-old me!
It's moments like this that remind me how important it is we look down. We're often so busy climbing this proverbial mountain of growth that we lose sight of just how far we've come. Sometimes, we need to take a little peek down the mountain to jar ourselves back to reality of just how far we've actually come.
In a world that consistently tells us we're not good enough and encourages us to unfairly compare ourselves to others, perhaps we need to start (fairly) comparing ourselves to where we've come from. I don't want to be the next xyz. I want to be the best me I can be. Therefore, instead of comparing myself to someone else, I need to compare myself to where I've come from.
Am I more skilled at x than I used to be?
Am I wiser than I used to be?
Am I a better decision-maker than I used to be?
Is my emotional intelligence better than it used to be?
Are my blog posts and podcast episodes sharper than when I first began?
Am I more effective in my coaching than I was in the past?
Are my speaking skills better honed than in my earlier talks?
These should be the measuring sticks I use to assess myself, not some celebrity version of what I do on social media. As for you, you need to create your own measuring sticks. You need to look down that proverbial mountain and see just how dang far you've come. Go ahead, take a peek. Be honest with yourself. How far have you come in the past year? 5 years? What about 10 years!?!?
Great, now just imagine how cool and awesome it's going to be 10 years from now! That version of you is really going to move the needle. Keep moving forward.
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