It’s not about how hard you try, but how hard you try to improve.
We’re often told things like “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”. Or Steve Jobs said:
“If I try my best and fail, well, I’ve tried my best.”
But I think those sentiments might miss a bit that could really amp up how fulfilled we feel when we are trying our best.
A lot of us on this rock are trying really really hard. At everything we do. Starting businesses. Being good friends. Cooking for our families. Whatever.
But we aren’t always trying that hard to improve.
Trying hard and trying hard to improve aren’t the same.
Yet the distinction is important.
It’s important because I don’t think trying our hardest always leads us to feeling fulfilled. But trying our hardest at improving ourselves does.
It might be easiest for you to see this in a sport you play. I remember playing basketball as a kid. I tried so friggin hard during those gradeschool games.
One game, I got run over by a kid going for a layup. I was happy because I got the foul called on the kid, but I broke my wrist in the process. But since we only had 6 people on our baskeball team, and my dad (the coach) knew I would keep trying to play (We weren’t sure the wrist was broken. The ER could wait), he put me back in the game.
There I am trying to play point guard with my useless right hand. Since it was my shooting hand, and strong dribbling hand, I just tried to play with my left hand and make more passes.
I didn’t stay in the game that long though. I dove for a ball and tied another guy up to get a jump ball. And in that process I got hit in the face, and had to come out of the game with a bloody nose. :)
I tell this story just to give you an example of the trying I was doing out there to play the game.
But no matter how hard I was trying out there in gradeschool basketball, I wasn’t good enough to play in highschool.
And I wasn’t because I didn’t try hard enough to improve. I wasn’t out there practicing my dribbling deliberately enough to improve. I wasn’t trying very hard to improve my speed. Or my jump. I was just out playing.
That’s a regret I have. I still might have not been able to get good enough to play high school baskeball, but I regret not trying my hardest to improve at it when I had the chances.
You can see some of the power of trying ones hardest looking at Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. Those guys aren’t just playing game after game. They are also out there trying their hardest to improve.
Tiger Woods will go to the driving range after a hard day’s work, and start a cycle of improvement. He’ll hit ball after ball. Trying to improve a single type of shot. Or Michael Jordan who would shoot a hundred free throws even after everyone else was done.
Jordan was even practicing free throws in his head.
So as I think about 2012 and stuff I’d like to do better, I want to make sure I’m not just trying my hardest, but that I’m trying my hardest to improve the things I do. Being an entrepreneur. Being a husband. A friend. Everything.
Have an awesome New Year guys! What kind of things are you reflecting on as 2012 is getting started?
