Top athletic achievers don’t come to training and do the same things every day. They don’t lift the same weights, train at the same intensity, and want what they wanted the previous day. That’s what average athletes do; they sit in their comfort zone. And you know when you are there – as you feel, well, comfortable. But guess what, it’s supposed to hurt. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable. Those pains and little voices inside your head that encourage you to stop, that is growth in disguise. That’s how we constantly improve and be the best we can be and also what separates the high achievers from the complacent average performers, whether it’s soccer, business or any other profession you are in. The constant growth mindset gives that exponential growth for the mind, body and results. And it’s all about the results. How do I perform better than yesterday?
It’s a simple question with huge consequences, both positive and negative. Let’s do the simple math. If we were to improve our performance by just a 10th of 1% every day, then we would increase our performance by 50% over the course of a year. That is massive incremental gain. To give an example, if you have an average reading concentration span of, say, 20 pages per day and commit to increasing this by just a tenth of 1% everyday, this is only adding six words on the first day to your normal reading routine. Easy, right? But by the time we get to day 365, we are adding hundreds of words. On the final day of the year, we would only be adding nine words to the previous day’s reading: NINE WORDS! However, this small incremental increase adds up to a whopping five extra books per year read than if you had just stuck to the 20 pages per day. And the devil is not in the details or even the small increment. It is in the relentless commitment to doing this every day. To be constantly asking ourselves the question, can I be better than yesterday? Am I better than yesterday?
Most people sit in the comfort zone as they are not willing to put long-term gain ahead of short-term pain. And we are not just talking about professional soccer players here. Putting that one-hour workout in before we head to the office sets us up for an entire day of clear thinking and focus. Saying no to those chips for the short-term gain gives us the long-term health benefits. Staying that extra 30 minutes in the office when everyone else has bailed for happy hour could land us a sale that gets us recognized by our boss as the person who takes their work seriously enough for a promotion. Refusing that glass of wine and TV when you finally sit down after a long day at the office and instead opt for herbal tea and some reading before an early night sets you up for a high-performance day that could change everything.
And of course, as with everything, the opposite is true. Those who sit in their comfort zone and even below it will more often than not choose the short-term gain and suffer the long-term pain – hangovers, health issues, and remaining stuck in the same job with no growth or pay raises. The math is extremely simple, but we just need to adopt the commitment mindset. Choose the results we want to see, make a plan to get there, and relentlessly commit to them.
